Last Saturday, I joined nine other nature lovers on a six-mile springtime hike through Henry Coe State Park. I don't want to shock you now, but let me tell you, we saw a lot of incredible sex along the trail.
Please let me explain that when I refer to "sex" in the last sentence, I mean that our group of hikers witnessed an abundance of colorful wildflowers. They burst forth everywhere, accenting the landscape with incredible colors, shapes, and patterns. Lupine, golden poppies, buttercups, owl's clover, purple ground irises, and many other varieties of blooms surprised us at nearly every turn of the trail.
All were engaging in sexual activity for the reproduction of their species.
Long before Coca-cola, flowers were the world' first advertising. Their marketing message: "Come over here, my dear, and enjoy some refreshing nectar." Certain flowers even generate a fragrant scent to tantalize the insect and avian creatures even more. It's all clever packaging that would make the folks on Madison Avenue proud.
Tempted by the nectar treat, the birds and the bees come over to the flower and taste the delicious reward. As they do so, some of the pollen dust from the flower's stamen (the male part) gets on their wings and feathers.
When the flying creature goes to the next plant, some pollen brushes off on the pistol (the female part) and - voila! Reproduction can proceed. It's flower fertilization by a kind of insect-avian FedEx delivery system.
The plant can now produce the fruit that will hold the seeds that will allow the species to create the next generation.
Plant life is very adaptable in evolving flowers to attract the pollinators. You might never suspect it by the way they look, but the DNA in roses is very similar to that in the squash. And strawberries are close genetic cousins with marijuana plants. Think about that the next time you eat shortcake.
Flowers are an important part of our lives. We humans use them to express our feelings to the people we care about.
Men give women a dozen roses on Valentine's Day or a corsage at the prom to express those tender emotions it's so often hard for many of us males to say to the women we think are special.
And we use flowers to decorate the weddings, funerals, dinners and special celebrations of our lives. Perhaps the flora provides a subtle hint that life is precious and beautiful and too short and should be cherished.
But on a greater scale, flowers are much more than just mere decoration. They make our lives possible. Most of the food we eat needs flowers to be produced. Here in the South Valley every springtime, we witness our local orchards grow white with blossoms. Those blooms aren't just looking pretty.
They provide the pollination process that lets us enjoy fresh apples, apricots, pears, cherries and other summer fruit.
Other than what comes out of the ocean, almost all of the food you might find in your neighborhood grocery store is produced courtesy of flowers.
Even grains such as wheat, rice, and corn use flowers to create their kernels. There would be no Wonder Bread without wheat, and there would be no wheat without flowers. The grain feedstock for cattle and poultry need flowers for its production, so our meat also requires blossoms.
Meandering down the roads and park paths at Henry Coe last weekend amidst the bountiful wildflowers, our hiking group wasn't considering these practical matters of flora and food production.
We were simply enjoying the bounty of awe-inspiring blooms. Like the birds and the bees, we found ourselves attracted to the splendor of this annual springtime display.
It would be the height of arrogance, however, to think that nature had provided these floral displays merely for our own human amusement.
The natural world always has a reason beyond mere aesthetics for creating its diverse forms of life.
And when it comes to the the creation of flowers, that reason is about as primal as it gets. It's about the continuation of life.
Marty Cheek Marty Cheek is the author of 'The Silicon Valley Handbook.' His column appears every Friday of the month. You can reach him by email.
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