Skip to main content
Log in

Photobiology

How flowers get the blues to lure bees

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature

View current issue Submit your manuscript

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

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

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

Authors

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

  • Springer Nature Limited

Navigation