Mating in flowering plants normally relies on animals, wind, gravity or secretion to convey pollen grains from the male (anther) to the female (stigma) organ^{1, 2}. Here we describe a new type of self-pollination mechanism in the tree-living orchid Holcoglossum amesianum, in which the bisexual flower turns its anther against gravity through 360° in order to insert pollen into its own stigma cavity — without the aid of any pollinating agent or medium. This mode of self-pollination, which occurs under windless, drought conditions when insects are scarce, adds to the variety of mechanisms that have evolved in angiosperms^{3, 4} to ensure their reproductive success^{1, 5}.

1. The Center for Biotechnology and BioMedicine, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China
2. School of Life Sciences, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
3. The National Orchid Conservation Center, Shenzhen 518114, China
4. College of Forestry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China

Correspondence to: LaiQiang Huang¹ Email: huanglq@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn

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