Bright, beautiful colors, sweet fragrance, luscious
nectar, with which the highly specialized bees, butterflies, and
moths are wooed, would all be lost on them, lacking as they do
esthetic taste. For flies, a snug shelter from cold spring winds
such as Jack-in-the-pulpit, the marsh calla, the pitcher-plant,
or the skunk cabbage offers; sometimes a fetid odor like the
latter's, or dull purplish red or brownish color resembling stale
meat, which the purple trillium likewise wears as an additional
attraction, are necessary when certain carrion flies must be
catered to; and, above all, an abundance of pollen for food -
with any or all of these seductions a flower dependent on flies
has nothing to fear from neglect. Therefore the wild ginger does
not even attempt to fertilize itself. Within the cozy cup one can
usually find a contented fly seeking shelter or food. Close to
the ground it is warm and less windy. When the cup first opens,
only the stigmas are mature and sticky to receive any pollen the
visitors may bring in on their bodies from other asylums where
they have been hiding.
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