Snails pollinate smart plants, according to Annals of Botany blog, 5 July 2016. A plant named Volvulopsis nummularium, a low growing plant of the convolvulus family, has short lived flowers, which open in the morning and only last for about half a day. It is pollinated by bees, but if it is raining and bees are not out foraging, then the flowers would not be pollinated. However, it turns out the flowers are also pollinated by a snail named the Graceful Awl Snail, which is out and about in rainy, but not in dry weather.
According to Nigel Chaffey, a botanist who wrote the blog post, “The advantage of dual pollinators is that the snails are able to mediate this important process on rainy days when the bees are not active, and vice versa. Continuity of pollination regardless of the weather, that’s a smart move on the plant’s part”.
Editorial Comment: How about that – snails actually do something useful! There had to be some good in them somewhere, although this editor has very little time for snails after having my flower seedlings ravaged by snails. However, God said that everything He created was very good and that had to include snails.
Both editors of this newsletter love plants, but even the most ardent plant lover has to admit it is not the plants that are smart enough to co-opt the snails for fertilisation. It is the Designer of the plant/bee/weather/snail system who is smart. He created the plants, along with two pollinators who are able to complement one another, and make a workable system that benefits all involved.
Furthermore, in the first world that had no rain, but only an early mist, both bees and snails had fair go at assisting the plant in return for benefit to themselves (see Gen 1-2). The down side now lies in facing the fact that it is only since human sin brought God’s judgement that snails and other pests as well as the weather have got out of sync. (Ref. botany, pollination, malacology)
Evidence News vol. 16 No. 14
27 July 2016
Creation Research Australia