Florivores and rainfall generally have negative impacts on plant fecundity. However, in some cases, they can mediate fruit set. Some plants face severe pollen-limited fecundity and any additional fruit set, even if from self-pollination, can be advantageous. This is the case in some tropical deceptive orchids, such as the threatened Cyrtopodium hatschbachii. Here we test the hypothesis that florivory of the anther cap would facilitate rain-assisted autogamy in this species. In the field, we followed flowers in which the anther cap was removed by the orthopteran Stenopola sp. and found cases where pollinia self-deposited after rainfall and in one case this resulted in swelling of the column typical of fruit development. This event comprised 33% of all fruit set in the population in 2019. We then experimentally varied anther cap removal and rainfall in a factorial design and found increased fruit set in the group with cap removal (simulated florivory) followed by rain. The water absorption by pollinia makes them heavier, causing the stipe to bend. The droplet of water on the stigma then shrinks and pulls the pollinia back onto the stigma, causing self-pollination. Seeds from self-pollination have considerable viability and may allow population persistence, given that bee-mediated cross-pollination is uncertain and even absent in some years. Our study provides a unique example of how two unrelated factors (i.e., florivory and rain) that are detrimental alone may together promote fruit set.

食草动物和降雨通常对植物繁殖力有负面影响。然而，在某些情况下，它们可以调节坐果。一些植物面临严重的花粉限制的繁殖力，任何额外的坐果，即使是自花授粉，也可能是有利的。一些热带欺骗性兰花就是这种情况，例如受威胁的Cyrtopodium hatschbachii。在这里，我们测试了花药帽的花香将促进该物种的雨水辅助自配偶的假设。在田间，我们追踪了花药帽被直翅目Stenopola去除的花朵sp. 并发现了花粉在降雨后自行沉积的案例，在一个案例中，这导致了果实发育典型的柱子膨胀。该事件占 2019 年人口中所有坐果的 33%。然后我们在因子设计中实验性地改变了花药帽去除和降雨量，并发现在去除花药帽（模拟植物）后下雨的组中坐果增加。花粉的吸水使它们变重，导致菌柄弯曲。柱头上的水滴然后收缩并将花粉拉回到柱头上，导致自花授粉。考虑到蜜蜂介导的异花授粉不确定甚至在某些年份不存在，自花授粉的种子具有相当大的生存能力并且可能允许种群持续存在。我们的研究提供了一个独特的例子，说明两个不相关的因素（即，