flowers & pollen
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flowers

While most insects will feed from many kinds of flowers, there are certain specialists in both groups. Some insects have adapted to feed efficiently from just one species of flower, and some plants have evolved flower structures that encourage pollination only by certain kinds of insects. For example, open, upright flowers are favored by butterflies, while low, drooping flowers are pollinated by bees. The nectar at the base of a long, trumpet-shaped flower is more accessible to a butterfly than to short-tongued bee. Some short-tongued bees have a trick for reaching this nectar, however: they cut small holes at the base of the flower, so they can drink the nectar directly instead of reaching through the flower. But this is of no advantage to the plant, because nectar is consumed with no movement of pollen. Red clover is pollinated mostly by large bumble bees, while the smaller white clover flowers attract honey bees, whose tongues are too short to reach the nectar within red clover flowers.

The petals on most flowers are patterned, which helps insects find their way to the center of the flower where the pollen and nectar are located. The petals of other flowers appear to be a plain color, which would offer no help to a confused bee. But patterns are there, they are just invisible to humans. In addition to seeing regular colors, bees can also detect ultraviolet wave lengths. These uniformly colored petals have patterns that are only visible in ultraviolet light, and where we see a plain colored flower, bees see a variety of colors. For example, certain sunflowers that look completely yellow to us have ultraviolet patterns visible to bees.
flower
flower
On this page: Flowers are brightly colored to attract insects, but the colors that insects see are different from what we see. Photos by Maya Walters.

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