Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Photobiology

How flowers get the blues to lure bees

Nature volume 550, pages 467–468 (2017)Cite this article

The petals of a range of flowers harbour repeated patterns of nanostructures that show similar levels of disorder across species. This degree of disorder produces a blue halo of scattered light that helps bees to find flowers. See Article p.469

The ability to effectively pass genetic material to a sexual partner is a powerful driver of evolution. Humans and other mobile organisms have evolved so that sexual partners are attracted to one another. But immobile organisms such as plants must rely on an intermediary carrier — bees carrying genetic material in pollen, for instance. These carriers are crucial to the survival of immobile species, and have co-evolved closely with them1,2. Moyroud et al.3 report on page 469 that diverse flowering plants have evolved to produce a 'blue halo' of colour that attracts bumblebees (Bombus terrestris).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: A blue halo of colour on the petals of Ursinia calendulifolia.

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Balamurali, G. S., Krishna, S. & Somanathan, H. Curr. Sci. India 108, 1852–1861 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bukovac, Z. et al. Evol. Ecol. 31, 153–172 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Moyroud, E. et al. Nature 550, 469–474 (2017).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Chittka, L. & Raine, N. E. Curr. Opin. Plant. Biol. 9, 428–435 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Leonard, A. S. & Masek, P. J. Comp. Physiol. A 200, 463–474 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Bukovac, Z. et al. J. Comp. Physiol. A 203, 369–380 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Dyer, A. G. & Chittka, L. J. Comp. Physiol. A 190, 105–114 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Vignolini, S. et al. New Phytol. 205, 97–101 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Whitney, H. M. et al. Science 323, 130–133 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Whitney, H. M., Reed, A., Rands, S. A., Chittka, L. & Glover, B. J. Curr. Biol. 26, 802–808 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, USA

    Dimitri D. Deheyn

Authors
  1. Dimitri D. Deheyn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dimitri D. Deheyn.

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Evolutionary ecology: Bedazzled by flowers

Ecology: A helping habitat for bumblebees

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Deheyn, D. How flowers get the blues to lure bees. Nature 550, 467–468 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24155

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24155

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing