Flowers respond to pollinator sound within minutes by increasing nectar sugar concentration.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Veits M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6852653 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Flowers respond to pollinator sound within minutes by increasing nectar sugar concentration.
Veits Marine M Khait Itzhak I Obolski Uri U Zinger Eyal E Boonman Arjan A Goldshtein Aya A Saban Kfir K Seltzer Rya R Ben-Dor Udi U Estlein Paz P Kabat Areej A Peretz Dor D Ratzersdorfer Ittai I Krylov Slava S Chamovitz Daniel D Sapir Yuval Y Yovel Yossi Y Hadany Lilach L
Ecology letters 20190708 9
Can plants sense natural airborne sounds and respond to them rapidly? We show that Oenothera drummondii flowers, exposed to playback sound of a flying bee or to synthetic sound signals at similar frequencies, produce sweeter nectar within 3 min, potentially increasing the chances of cross pollination. We found that the flowers vibrated mechanically in response to these sounds, suggesting a plausible mechanism where the flower serves as an auditory sensory organ. Both the vibration and the nectar ...[more]
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