Some plants are self pollinating, meaning they can self reproduce without the need for outside intervention.
Not so with Orchids, which require the help of an outside pollinating insect to carry their seeds to the next plant.
It is this cross-pollination that has allowed the Orchid to thrive in a multitude of environments.
And the methods the have devised seem almost intelligent.
Orchids have become the largest group of flowering plants on the planet by making themselves irresistible to the insects that they attract to pollinate them.
Orchids often look so much like the male insects mate that it will try to mate with it and when it lands on the orchid, pollen is deposited on the insect which then carries it to the next orchid where it is deposited.
Another species appears to its pollinating insect like something it likes to kill, when the insect does what comes natural and attacks it, it again receives the orchids pollen and pollination is assured.
The variety of mechanisms that have evolved is truly astonishing.
Some orchids use scent to attract pollinators.
Smelling like such broad ranging odors as rotting meat, chocolate and angel food cake.
Others release their scent only at night to attract nocturnal insects such as moths.
Interestingly enough a single orchid plants chances of being pollinated are very low.
They have compensated for this by evolving a very dense seed pack almost dust like, containing as much as a million seeds compared to the perhaps 20 seeds of an average plant.
So if an orchid is pollinated the large number of seeds guarantee the species survival.