How exactly do bees find their targets when landing for nourishment? Scientists have now discovered that bees are aided to their targets by the flowers themselves. Several common flower species are now known to have nanoscale ridges on the surface of their petals. These nanoscale ridges allow the flower to signal to the bee, forming a sort of ‘blue halo’ landing pad so that the bee can easily identify and land on the surface of the flower.
The nanoscale ridges found on the surface of the petals have an effect on incoming light. When light strikes the ridges, the light beam is scattered in the blue spectrum of light, forming what scientists are dubbing the ‘blue halo’ effect. Scientists believe that this blue halo allows for identification of potential flower targets for bees. To test this theory, scientists artificially recreated the nanoscale ridges so that the blue halo effect could be duplicated. When tested with bee pollinators, it was found that the flowers with the nanoscale ridges were more likely to be pollinated.
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