A new study, led by scientists from the
University of Bristol, has found that a wide range of flowers produce not just
signals that we can see and smell, but also ones that are invisible such as
heat.
In the hidden world of flower-pollinator
interactions, heat can
act not only as life-sustaining warmth, but can also be part of the rich
variety of sensory signposts that flowers use to provide advertisement and information for their insect pollinators.
The majority of flowers examined, including
many common in gardens, such as poppies and daisies, had complex patterns of
heat across their petals, echoing the colourful patterns that we see with our
own eyes.
On average these patterns were 4-5°C warmer
than the rest of the flower, although the patterns could be as much as 11°C
warmer.
The Bristol Scientists made artificial
flowers that copied these heat patterns, but did not include the corresponding
colour patterns.
While these artificial flowers look identical
to human eyes, and we are not able to tell them apart, it is a different case
for foraging bumblebees.
Bumblebees, who visit a wide range of
different flowers, were found to be able to use these patterns to distinguish
between different flowers and the rewards that they provide.
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