Sunday, July 23, 2023

Bees actually prefer purple flowers

Bees prefer purple, and their vision is attuned to the violet end of the spectrum.
"In nectar-rich flowers, there are often pigmented patterns on the petals that absorb UV light and create a 'guide' to ferry the bee towards its nectaries. Remember, flowers want to be pollinated so that they can survive and produce offspring, so this UV pigment development is no accident." 

 It's a brilliant example of "co-evolution."
"The two groups have coevolved for mutual success. Adult bees evolved behavioral and physiological adaptations to gather and transport pollen more efficiently...[e.g.] buzz-pollination: flight muscles can create sound vibrations that dislodge pollen from flowers... Many flowers signal pollinators by changing color at different stages of development, attracting pollinators when they need them most, thus increasing the efficiency of the pollinators"


And an interesting co-evolution is the shift, among several species of the same genus, from attracting bees to attracting hummingbirds, which must be even more effective pollinators. These flowers changed their structure in specific ways from attracting bees (blue color, wide corolla, landing platform) to promoting hummingbirds (red color, long thin tubular corolla)

Which came first - flowers or bees? This video answers that. 
https://youtu.be/iyvXZcWUbI0

This hummingbird and its favorite flower co-evolved so the two are uniquely dependent on each other. 
https://youtu.be/7xRxpicxeFQ


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