Evolution in Flowers
Has evolution ever interested you? What about evolution in plants?
Researchers from UC Santa Barbara and Harvard University have reported that the petal spurs of Columbine flowers, also known as Aquilegia, have evolved over time to lengthen themselves to enable pollinators to collect nectar from them easier; thus leading to increased chances of pollination. What is more amazing, is that the elongation of the spurs does not come from the increased number of cells, but the lengthening of the cells themselves. This has contradicted more than 60 years of scientific theory that there are other ways to produce shape diversity in plants without the cells having to increase their numbers through cell division.
When Scott A. Hodges, professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at UCSB compared the long-spurred flower to the short-spurred one, he and his fellow researchers realised both types had nearly identical numbers of cells!
Evolution in flora is really extraordinary. To adapt to different pollinators, and increase the probability of their pollination, they have evolved into many different forms, like those with short spurs and those with long spurs. For instance, short spurred ones can be easily pollinated by bees, medium ones by hummingbirds and long ones by hawkmoths (they have long tongues). I find that flowers and plants are alive in a similar way just like us, and do what is needed for the betterment of their lives.
Really, flowers are smart enough to devise methods to ensure continuity of their kind. Has this changed your view that only humans and animals can evolve over time? If you are still a little doubtful, read on!
Researchers from UC Santa Barbara and Harvard University have reported that the petal spurs of Columbine flowers, also known as Aquilegia, have evolved over time to lengthen themselves to enable pollinators to collect nectar from them easier; thus leading to increased chances of pollination. What is more amazing, is that the elongation of the spurs does not come from the increased number of cells, but the lengthening of the cells themselves. This has contradicted more than 60 years of scientific theory that there are other ways to produce shape diversity in plants without the cells having to increase their numbers through cell division.
When Scott A. Hodges, professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at UCSB compared the long-spurred flower to the short-spurred one, he and his fellow researchers realised both types had nearly identical numbers of cells!
Evolution in flora is really extraordinary. To adapt to different pollinators, and increase the probability of their pollination, they have evolved into many different forms, like those with short spurs and those with long spurs. For instance, short spurred ones can be easily pollinated by bees, medium ones by hummingbirds and long ones by hawkmoths (they have long tongues). I find that flowers and plants are alive in a similar way just like us, and do what is needed for the betterment of their lives.
Really, flowers are smart enough to devise methods to ensure continuity of their kind. Has this changed your view that only humans and animals can evolve over time? If you are still a little doubtful, read on!
Let's talk about something which stretches millions of years back- how Australian bees drove evolution in flowers
According to Adrian Dyer, a vision researcher, flowers in Australia about 34 million years ago were simple and plain- without any colour. Since then, the flowers have started to beautify themselves with bright colours so that they can attract pollinators. But since the subject here is bees, what's special about them?
You see, these bees have ultraviolet, blue and green receptors which are best suited to identify the colours of the Australian flowers. Other animals like birds and insects are not as suited as bees to pollinate Australian flowers. Dyer's team randomly sampled 111 species of Australian flowers and tested which pollinator could detect their colours easiest by using a spectrophotometer. Of course, bees came in first. The colours emitted by the flowers directly correlated to the bee's ultraviolet, blue and green colour receptors.
Don't be mistaken- the bees' colour vision has not evolved over time! Their ability to detect colour dates back to around 300-400 million years ago, and there has been no evidence to prove that bees colour vision has evolved to suit those of flowers at all.
We should protect bees as they are the main pollinators of many flowering plants today. We should not try to kill them or destroy their habitats as we would be disrupting nature. Already in Europe and the United States, the number of bees are facing a decline. Plants would lose their pollinators (bees are absolutely essential for flowering ones), and the beauty of the environment would be adversely affected.
According to Adrian Dyer, a vision researcher, flowers in Australia about 34 million years ago were simple and plain- without any colour. Since then, the flowers have started to beautify themselves with bright colours so that they can attract pollinators. But since the subject here is bees, what's special about them?
You see, these bees have ultraviolet, blue and green receptors which are best suited to identify the colours of the Australian flowers. Other animals like birds and insects are not as suited as bees to pollinate Australian flowers. Dyer's team randomly sampled 111 species of Australian flowers and tested which pollinator could detect their colours easiest by using a spectrophotometer. Of course, bees came in first. The colours emitted by the flowers directly correlated to the bee's ultraviolet, blue and green colour receptors.
Don't be mistaken- the bees' colour vision has not evolved over time! Their ability to detect colour dates back to around 300-400 million years ago, and there has been no evidence to prove that bees colour vision has evolved to suit those of flowers at all.
We should protect bees as they are the main pollinators of many flowering plants today. We should not try to kill them or destroy their habitats as we would be disrupting nature. Already in Europe and the United States, the number of bees are facing a decline. Plants would lose their pollinators (bees are absolutely essential for flowering ones), and the beauty of the environment would be adversely affected.
Watch this video to learn about the adaptations of desert plants (a relevant topic to evolution anyway)