Bees the
key to flower colour evolution
7 June 2012
Plants
separated by vast oceans and 34 million years evolved to produce the same
coloured flower petals because of their reliance on bees for pollination,
according to new research.
In a study
published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists from
Monash University, RMIT University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History
demonstrated how flowering plants, or angiosperms, in Australia and Europe have
made use of the same colours to attract bees.
Lead
researcher Dr Adrian Dyer of Monash University's Department of Physiology and
RMIT's School of Media and Communications worked with Monash colleagues Dr Bob
Wong, Sky Boyd-Gerny and Vera Simonov from the School of Biological Sciences,
and Professor Marcello Rosa, also from the Department of Physiology on the
study.
read more:
http://www.monash.edu.au/news/show/bees-the-key-to-flower-colour-evolution