Plants secretly communicate with heat
Photo source: treehugger
We can not see it. But bumblebees do: That plants communicate with their pollinators is nothing new. For example, they try to lure bumblebees and bees with delicious smells or colorful leaves But they also use signals that are invisible to us, according to British researchers in the magazine eLife. The researchers studied different types of plants and discovered that complex heat patterns can be found on the leaves of the vast majority. On average, the heat patterns turned out to be about 4 to 5 degrees Celsius warmer than the rest of the plant. But sometimes they were up to 11 degrees Celsius warmer, the researchers write.
The scientists also show in their studies that bumblebees are guided by these heat patterns. They made some artificial flowers that did have a heat pattern, but no corresponding color pattern. Although those flowers were all the same for us people, they were clearly different in the eyes of bumblebees and they turned out to use the heat patterns to distinguish between flowers and the treats they had to offer. The discovery has made researcher Heather Whitney think. For example, she is increasingly concerned about the impact climate change has on the relationship between flowers and their pollinators. "Climate change can have an additional and, until recently, unexpected impact on the interaction between bees and flowers by disrupting these hidden heat patterns."
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