Credit: D. MANNING & B. GLOVER, UNIV. CAMBRIDGE

Curr. Biol. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.04.051 (2009)

Animal-pollinated plants produce many cues and structures that help pollinators to navigate plant parts. Most flowering plants have cone-shaped cells on the surface of their petals, but the specific function of these cells was unknown. An elegant experiment now shows that they help pollinators to get a grip on the plant surface.

Beverley Glover at the University of Cambridge, UK, and her colleagues observed the behaviour of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) on natural and artificial surfaces that were coated with flat or conical cells. When the surfaces were presented at awkward angles, the bees grasped more easily and preferentially selected the textured surfaces. By making the flower surface tractable for landing pollinators, the authors suggest, conical epidermal cells increase the efficiency of pollination.