U n quiet walk in the Sierra de Guadarrama, in the foothills of malice, Javier Barbadillo and Carmen has provided not only a pleasant conversation and exercise, but opportunity to enjoy and learn together in nature.
We are in our environment, as soon by looking at the lizard like beetles and simple flowers with interesting secrets.
I take advantage of the knowledge of Javier on the flora of the Sierra to help me identify this orchid, Orchis mascula , which now dominates the slopes of the mountains near the 2,000 meters, with its purple spikes, among heather and huckleberries. 
flower is a humble, not particularly striking, and we need to approach it to appreciate its simple beauty. Underground, hidden as if they give shame, have a pair of tubercles paired as a couple ... Testicles! Yes, the Greek name for the testicles, "orchis" is the origin of the name as sophisticated flowers.
Another feature of the orchids are the flowers, tremendously changed and evolved. Lost radial symmetry of simpler ones and change. One of the petals is highly modified and created a kind of runway for insects. This orchid is not imitating the design and scent bees to try to make them fertile males, but at the rear offers a spur in which they find nectar to entice, but not for sex, then at the call of the stomach .
When a bee or other insect lands on the enlarged part of the petal, called the lip, and into trying to reach the nectar, the orchid is not content to soak in pollen, which does is to put a kind of sticky flags in head, face or trunk. Are the pollinia, the kind of clubs you see in the picture below, which are loaded with pollen grains.
to show my daughter, and you, I made a stick in the flower and has come out with the two components together.
just get the bug flower, begin to degrade and drying columns which stuck to the insect and when re-entering another flower the pollinia falling on the stigmas to fertilize and try to ensure another generation of orchids.
Orchids produce thousands of tiny seeds, so small as spores, carried by the wind trying to colonize new land. But few make it to germinate, because not only need suitable land, but have to live in symbiosis with a fungus in their roots, mycorrhizae. Some orchids, do not they just, barely do photosynthesis and live off fungi. Others on the contrary, they are epiphytes, also need to be light on the roots, as they also fulfill the function of photosynthesis.
insects, orchids and mushrooms are a fine example of co-evolution and shows that we need to preserve nature as a whole and not as isolated elements. It is definitely an example of the importance of biodiversity.
flower is a humble, not particularly striking, and we need to approach it to appreciate its simple beauty. Underground, hidden as if they give shame, have a pair of tubercles paired as a couple ... Testicles! Yes, the Greek name for the testicles, "orchis" is the origin of the name as sophisticated flowers. 
Another feature of the orchids are the flowers, tremendously changed and evolved. Lost radial symmetry of simpler ones and change. One of the petals is highly modified and created a kind of runway for insects. This orchid is not imitating the design and scent bees to try to make them fertile males, but at the rear offers a spur in which they find nectar to entice, but not for sex, then at the call of the stomach . When a bee or other insect lands on the enlarged part of the petal, called the lip, and into trying to reach the nectar, the orchid is not content to soak in pollen, which does is to put a kind of sticky flags in head, face or trunk. Are the pollinia, the kind of clubs you see in the picture below, which are loaded with pollen grains.
to show my daughter, and you, I made a stick in the flower and has come out with the two components together.
just get the bug flower, begin to degrade and drying columns which stuck to the insect and when re-entering another flower the pollinia falling on the stigmas to fertilize and try to ensure another generation of orchids. 
Orchids produce thousands of tiny seeds, so small as spores, carried by the wind trying to colonize new land. But few make it to germinate, because not only need suitable land, but have to live in symbiosis with a fungus in their roots, mycorrhizae. Some orchids, do not they just, barely do photosynthesis and live off fungi. Others on the contrary, they are epiphytes, also need to be light on the roots, as they also fulfill the function of photosynthesis. insects, orchids and mushrooms are a fine example of co-evolution and shows that we need to preserve nature as a whole and not as isolated elements. It is definitely an example of the importance of biodiversity.
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