Native Plant Society of New Mexico Native Plant Society of New Mexico

George Miller, president of the Albuquerque chapter of the NPSNM and author of “Landscaping with Native Plants of the Southwest,” will explore how plants have evolved to manipulate pollinator behavior not only with pollen and nectar rewards, but also with tricks, stimulants, addiction, deception, and entrapment. Plants and insects have co-evolved for 150 million years to create mutually-dependent physical, chemical, and behavioral systems to insure that sexual reproduction produces seeds, the seeds are dispersed, and the species propagates into the future. But not all plants play fair, and the most creative cheaters almost always win, at least in the short run in terms of evolution. You can bear witness to much of the deceit and debauchery if you have a native plant habitat garden in your yard.