Green on green Colourful flowers stand out between the greenery. There are, however, green flowers. Now Spanish and American researchers show in Annals of Botany that those do stand out, at least for bees and flies. ‘A green flower is not noticed, and is pollinated by wind.’ That was long the believe. But there areContinue reading “Green on green”
Tag Archives: Flowers
Blushing flowers
Blushing flowers Some flowers shift colour after pollination. In this way they signal to pollinators here is nothing more to get. Now Chinese and American researches discovered which gene is regulating this in Lotus species. The flowers of Lotus japonicus and Lotus filicaulis are both yellow. Only one of those, L. filicaulis, colours a blushingContinue reading “Blushing flowers”
Bullseye
Bullseye Flowers go all out for getting noticed by pollinators, like accentuating their centre with a different colour. Now Englisch researchers show in Science Advances that this pattern establishes itself early in hibiscus flower development. The dark yellow stamen full with pollen form a stark contrast with the blue-purple spot that forms the middle ofContinue reading “Bullseye”
Flowers that want to be heard
Flowers that want to be heard Nectar-eating bats find their flowers based on echolocation. This works best with flowers that stick out show American and Colombia researchers in the New Phytologist. Bats pollinated flowers have less showy colours, a wide bell forming corella. They smell musty. And the produce lots of pollen. In addition theyContinue reading “Flowers that want to be heard”