El Alto | Queer: Gender Sexuality and the Arts in the Americas

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named gymnosperms, a term that comes from
the Greek gymnos, meaning “naked,” and sperma,
meaning “seed.”
Gymnosperms are the product of the union
between the male pollen – which is formed
inside male cones – and the female ovule.
Typically, male and female cones can be found
in the same specimen; only a few gymnosperms
have separate specimens with cones that are
exclusively male or female.
The sexual union that produces the seed
also requires the help of favourable wind to
transport the pollen to the immobile ovule. Many
gymnosperms have winged seeds that can float
freely to travel and conquer new territories.
Gymnosperms include pine trees, cypresses,
and auracarias. In general, they’re found in
temperate climate zones with differentiated
seasons. Although the latter is not really the
case in Colombia, we can find here some
native species such as the “romerón” pine tree
(Retrophyllum rospigliosii), which is frequented
by the local birds because of its delicious, meaty
cones that resemble fruits. Another example is
the Colombian pine tree (Podocarpus oleifolius),
whose female cones secrete a substance every
morning to facilitate the capture of pollen that
makes pollination easier. This process is repeated
daily until fecundation occurs.
ENCLOSED “PUBLIC NUPTIALS:”
THE ANGIOSPERMS OR
FLOWERING PLANTS
The flower is the most recent innovation in plant
sexuality evolution. This development allowed
plants to exhibit a “public sexuality” that is not
only dependent on wind or water, but also on
animals as agents of pollination. The flower has
evolved as the botanical organ of seduction par
excellence.
Flowers are very diverse: there are bisexual and
unisexual flowers, and their colours and smells
attract a wide variety of animals. As they forage
for the nectar of flowers, animals get coated with
male pollen, which is produced by the stamen
– the structure that keeps the pollen in a flower.
When these animals visit a new flower, they
unintentionally transfer the pollen to that flower’s
pistil – the structure that keeps the ovules – and
pollination occurs. As such, the nectar is the
flower’s reward to animals for their inadvertent
work, which guarantees the continued existence
of the plant.
It’s thought that the intimate relation between
plants and animals began some 125 million years
ago, when flowering plants first coexisted with
flying insects in the same space. Nowadays,
insects continue to be the main pollinators,
although some mammals, such as bats, shrews
and mice, as well as birds (like the hummingbird),
are important pollinators as well.
Bogotá is full of various types of flowers that
showcase the multiple strategies used by plants
in order to guarantee their reproduction. Roses,
orchids, jasmines, irises, lilies and agapanthuses
are but a few examples of the incredible diversity
we find in Colombia’s capital.
FLOWERS, OR THE ART OF IMITATING
[#FLORADRAG]
Orchids are amongst nature’s most reputable
imitators. Some disguise themselves as female
insects, luring male insects that are flying over to
plunge into the flower and unsuccessfully attempt
copulation. The male insect finally abandons the
flower in search for new mating opportunities,
which often come in the form of another
imitating flower, where the scene repeats itself.
Flowers can resemble male insects too: when a
male insect sees the flower within its territory,
he attacks it. The deceived insect will eventually
resume its flight, carrying with him the pollen
that will eventually arrive to another flower.
Shapes are not the only elements of deception.
At times, colours and smells are brought into the
trick. Some milkweeds (Asclepiadaceae) from
the South African deserts produce large, fleshy
flowers, thinly covered with hair, that have a
suspicious meaty colour and whose centre emits
a foul odour, similar to that of rotting meat. This
combo is enough to attract flies that feed on
decaying flesh. They of course cannot find what
they were looking for, but they nevertheless end
up acting as pollen transporters.
Also, some flower families have shapes that
introduce new challenges to the understanding
of general sexuality. Although bisexual flowers
display separate male and female organs,
some botanical families – such as the mallows,
which constitute a very large group of plants
in Colombia – display both male and female
structures, fused into a single organ known
as the androgynophore. This fusion represents
an evolutionary advantage to the species,
since it means pollinators can simultaneously
pollinate the flower and carry its pollen on
its travels.
FRUITS: FORMS OF DISPERSION
Amongst angiosperms, seeds are produced
some time after pollination, as is the case
with gymnosperms. For angiosperms, however,
once the seed is formed, the flower’s ovary – a
structure within the pistil that carries the ovules
– swells and, in some cases, becomes plump and
full of sugars. For this reason, flowering plants
are also known as angiosperms, a term that
comes from the Greek angeion, meaning “vessel”,
and sperma, meaning “seed.” In other words,
plants whose seeds are enclosed by a fruit.
The sugary fruit attracts a new range of animals
that will eat it and disseminate the seeds in
places where the plant can’t go. This symbiotic
interaction endows plants with the mobility they
lack: animals take angiosperms’ seeds to distant
places and are, in turn, rewarded with delicious
fruits that provide them with the energy they
need to survive.
Colombia boasts a wide variety of flowering
plants (and consequently, of edible fruits). The
imponent wax palm (Ceroxylon quindiuense) and
the colourful orchid (Cattleya trianae) are more
than national symbols: they are also exemplary
angiosperms.
A variety of sources have been consulted to
produce this guide. For more information,
please check the original text here: www.
museoq.org/index.php/proyectos/leer-lasflores-museo-q-en-el-jardin-botanico
© MuseoQ (Consultant: Jorge López Cortés).
Reading Flowers: A Brief (Queer) History of
plants). Second Edition, 2019.
1 – Reading Flowers: A Brief (Queer) History of
Plants is an educational material developed by MuseoQ.
Its first edition was produced by the Instituto Distrital
de las Artes’ Literature Division and its programme
Literary Picnic, an event part of Ciclo Rosa 2019 at
Bogotá’s Botanical Gardens. The second edition was
supported by a grant from Bogotá City Council. In 2019,
this free guide will be used as part of a programme of
guided visits across Bogotá’s public parks. The aim of
the guide is to celebrate the diversity of nature and to
open up discourses that celebrate diversity as innately
natural. MuseoQ thanks Jorge López Cortés, a biologist
specialised in botany, who advised on the development
of the text.