Bees key to flower evolution
Photographic reconstruction of how bee vision would see a flower, which appears yellow to human eyes. Image: Monash University 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. Dr Dyer said Australia was a good subject for studying flower...