Originally shared by Lacerant PlainerFlowers Buzz with electricityBees and plants communicate via electric signals, say scientistsPlants use electric fields to communicate with bees, scientists have learned.
Bees are able to find and decipher weak electric signals emitted by flowers, according to the study. Tests revealed that bees can distinguish between different floral fields, as if they were petal colours. The electric signals may also let the insects know if another bee has recently visited a flower.How bees detect the fields is unknown, but the researchers suspect the electrostatic force might make their hair bristle. A similar hair-raising effect is seen when placing one's head close to an old-style TV screen. Plants are known to emit weak negatively charged electric fields, and bees acquire a positive charge of up to 200 volts as they fly through the air.But bees -- busy as they famously are -- don't have time to waste visiting pretty flowers whose nectar has just been taken by another insect. "The last thing a flower wants is to attract a bee and then fail to provide nectar," said Daniel Robert, co-author of the study, in a statement. "Bees are good learners and would soon lose interest in such an unrewarding flower."So flowers, the researchers confirmed, emit a different electrical signal after their nectar has been harvested. They found that petunias became slightly more positively charged after a bee visited them, according to ScientificAmerican. That revised electrical charge acts as a kind of "No Vacancy" sign to other bees, which learn to trust the signals that the flowers emit.Article Link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/21/bees-flowers-electric-fields-communicationSources: Nature, Guardian, cbsnews, Scientificamerican
Pics courtesy: Fluidit.com,
thetripatorium.com #bees #flowers #symbiotic #nature #science #scienceeveryday