the language of flowers
Businesses communicate with their prospective clients through advertising, often using bright visuals to target a specific target market. Would it surprise you to know that nature perfected this technique first?
Plants face a unique challenge— they cannot move from one location to another. To overcome this, they’ve developed ingenious ways to interact with potential mates. Flowering plants, or angiosperms, have taken this to a fascinating level by employing many strategies to transfer pollen—the male gamete—to female receptors. The simplest methods involve using wind or water to disperse pollen. However, this approach can be inefficient, relying on vast amounts of pollen without guaranteeing success. Other plants have evolved a far more sophisticated method: they ‘advertise’ and ‘pay’ other organisms to assist with pollen transfer. In many ways, nature functions like a business.
The structures we commonly call flower petals are actually modified leaves. Their colour and form reveal the ecological strategy of the plant. A flower’s colour is designed to attract specific types of pollinators. For instance, red flowers, such as aloes, often have long flower tubes and stiff stems, ideally suited to attract birds. Birds, unlike humans, can see deeper into the infrared spectrum. These long flower tubes are often shaped to discourage all but a few species from accessing the nectar.
Bees, on the other hand, see more in the ultraviolet range. Blue and purple flowers tend to have shorter tubes and weaker stems, with one lower petal larger than the others. This petal acts as a unique landing platform for bees, often opening the flower tube to grant access to nectar. Other species that are too heavy or too light are naturally excluded.
Yellow flowers often have open structures, ideal for butterflies, whose delicate wings are less likely to get damaged. White flowers, which reflect all wavelengths of light, adopt a more generalist strategy. Some white-flowered plants, however, are specialists, opening only at night to attract nocturnal pollinators such as moths and fruit bats.
As with any business transaction, if one wants someone to do a job effectively, a reward should be involved. Flowers produce nectar, high in sugar, as a reward to pollinators. A closer inspection of some petals reveals markings known as “nectar guides,” which direct pollinators to the nectar. Interestingly, some plant species will change their anther’s position to place the pollen on different parts of a pollinator’s body because they flower simultaneously. For example, a sunbird visiting a Boerbean flower will collect pollen on its forehead. In contrast, visiting a Leafless Cadaba flower will leave pollen on its throat.
What a wonderful language flowers speak.