Chapter 45.4, Problem 1CSC

The warmth of hot flowers attracts pollinators and helps broadcast the flowers’ (often foul) scent. Corpse flower stalks can reach 98°F, as warm as our bodies. The heat and foul odor both occur in pulses produced by the central stalk. How do these flowers get so hot? Amorphophallus and other heat- producing flowers have evolved mechanisms that disconnect cellular respiration from ATP synthesis. In most cells, cellular respiration uses about 40% of the energy in glucose to synthesize ATP with the rest given off as heat (see Chapter 8). Hot flowers, on the other hand, synthesize very little ATP: instead, almost all of the energy in glucose is released as heat, causing the flower to warm up. Besides the promise of carrion, what other features have flowers evolved that attract animal pollinators?