Friday, April 10

The bumble bee and the Flower

A great example of Allah's protection and will.

Scientists were asked to study why a certain white-petaled flower, similar to a tulip, in the jungles of South America was mysteriously becoming extinct. Mysterious because there were no obvious man-made forces affecting it’s extinction such as pollution or pesticide.

They studied the plant for several seasons and determined that the flower was pollinated by the bumblebee and that only one bumblebee could pollinate the flower. The cause of the plant’s demise was that if a 2nd bumblebee came along and tried to pollinate it the plant would die. They also noted that only one bumblebee would occupy the flower at a time. If a bee was in search of a flower it could not land on a flower if another bee was already there.

The scientists were satisfied with their findings and reported that there was no remedy to save the popular flower but that they would continue to study it for one more season. The following year a funny thing started happening to all of the flowers--a black smudge began to develop on one of the flower’s petals. Puzzled, the scientists tested the black area for mold growth or some sort of blight but the flower was healthy. The black spot grew to about the size of a nickel then stopped. When it came time for the plant to be pollinated they observed the bumblebee pollinate the flower as usual--but there were no other 2nd or 3rd bees coming behind to land on the flower. To their amazement they discovered that after the first bee pollinated the flower the black spot on that one petal grew into the shape of a perfect silhouette of a bumblebee, warning all other bees to stay away thereby saving the plant from dying.

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