Bee Orchid

[[Beret guy and a woman are walking through a wood.]] Woman: There are these orchids whose flowers look like female bees. When males try to mate with them, they transfer pollen. [[The woman kneels next to a flower.]] Woman: This orchid - Ophrys Apifera - makes flowers, but no bees land on them because the bee it mimics went extinct long ago. [[The woman stands.]] Woman: Without its partner, the orchid has resorted to self-pollinating, a last-ditch genetic strategy that only delays the inevitable. Nothing of the bee remains, but we know it existed from the shape of this flower. [[They walk on past the flower.]] Woman: It's an idea of what the female bee looked like to the male bee... ... as interpreted by a plant. Beret guy: Wow, so... [[We see a full-colour painting of an orchid flower. It has purple-pink petals on a mottled grey background, along with the bee-like parts. It's quite a realistic painting.]] ... the only memory of the bee is a painting by a dying flower. [[The flower is alone in a panel.]] [[Beret guy walks back on screen.]] [[Beret guy kneels down next to it.]] Beret guy: I'll remember your bee, orchid. I'll remember you. [[Beret guy walks off-panel again.]] {{Title text: In sixty million years aliens will know humans only by a fuzzy clip of a woman in an Axe commercial.}}

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