Climbing Lily Flower Adaptations

Bull's-Eye

• The day lily displays a prominent bull's-eye color pattern on its face--one of several varieties that share this trait--to attract insect or humming bird pollinators. Since insects and hummingbirds only see specific colors--depending on the structure of their eye--lily varieties have evolved to display the colors their particular pollinators see best, according to botanists at the University of Guam.

Scent

• Some varieties of climbing lily, like the voodoo lily, use scent to attract pollinators to their flowers. The voodoo lily is pollinated by flies, and it emits a scent similar to rotting flesh to attract them. While the flies are attracted to this scent, the smell repels other insects and animals. So this adaptation encourages pollination while it protects the plant from potential predators.

Style and Anther

• The style, the ovary of the gloriosa lily, grows at a right angle to the anther, the fertilizer or pollinator of the flower, according to The Journal of Heredity. This adaptation prevents the plant from self-fertilizing, ensuring that the gene pool will continue to be varied, allowing for greater adaptation and, ultimately, survival. Climbing lilies are self-fertile, and a certain percentage of them are self-fertilized each season. This adaptation prevents an over-abundance of self-fertilized plants in the population.