BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Flowers ‘wave’ at passing insects

• By Matt Walker
  BBC

• Flowers "wave" at insects to get their attention, scientists have discovered.

  The finding helps explain why many flowers waft in the breeze, and reveals a hitherto unknown trick used to attract pollinators.

• Mobile flowers are visited more often by insects and also produce more seeds, they report in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

  Moving flowers also attract a wider variety of insect species than more static blooms.

• For years, biologists have known that flowers use striking colours, fragrances, elaborately shaped petals and nectar to attract pollinating insects such as bees and flies.

  Yet no-one had ever seriously considered whether wafting in the wind acted as a similar signal.

• "We found wavy flowers are more visible to insects, and thus attract more pollinators and set more seeds," said John Warren.

• "Short, fat-stalked flowers don’t wobble enough and are less attractive to pollinators; yet very wobbly flowers are just too wobbly for the insects to handle, as the insects cannot land on them.

  "Only flowers that wobble the right amount are successful in setting seeds."