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Fragmentary Blue: Resolving the Rarity Paradox in Flower Colors

Blue is a favored color of many humans. While blue skies and oceans are a common visual experience, this color is less frequently observed in flowers. We first review how blue has been important in human culture, and thus how our perception of blue has likely influenced the way of scientifically eva...

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Autores principales: Dyer, Adrian G., Jentsch, Anke, Burd, Martin, Garcia, Jair E., Giejsztowt, Justyna, Camargo, Maria G. G., Tjørve, Even, Tjørve, Kathleen M. C., White, Peter, Shrestha, Mani
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7859648/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33552110
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.618203
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author Dyer, Adrian G.
Jentsch, Anke
Burd, Martin
Garcia, Jair E.
Giejsztowt, Justyna
Camargo, Maria G. G.
Tjørve, Even
Tjørve, Kathleen M. C.
White, Peter
Shrestha, Mani
author_facet Dyer, Adrian G.
Jentsch, Anke
Burd, Martin
Garcia, Jair E.
Giejsztowt, Justyna
Camargo, Maria G. G.
Tjørve, Even
Tjørve, Kathleen M. C.
White, Peter
Shrestha, Mani
author_sort Dyer, Adrian G.
collection PubMed
description Blue is a favored color of many humans. While blue skies and oceans are a common visual experience, this color is less frequently observed in flowers. We first review how blue has been important in human culture, and thus how our perception of blue has likely influenced the way of scientifically evaluating signals produced in nature, including approaches as disparate as Goethe’s Farbenlehre, Linneaus’ plant taxonomy, and current studies of plant-pollinator networks. We discuss the fact that most animals, however, have different vision to humans; for example, bee pollinators have trichromatic vision based on UV-, Blue-, and Green-sensitive photoreceptors with innate preferences for predominantly short-wavelength reflecting colors, including what we perceive as blue. The subsequent evolution of blue flowers may be driven by increased competition for pollinators, both because of a harsher environment (as at high altitude) or from high diversity and density of flowering plants (as in nutrient-rich meadows). The adaptive value of blue flowers should also be reinforced by nutrient richness or other factors, abiotic and biotic, that may reduce extra costs of blue-pigments synthesis. We thus provide new perspectives emphasizing that, while humans view blue as a less frequently evolved color in nature, to understand signaling, it is essential to employ models of biologically relevant observers. By doing so, we conclude that short wavelength reflecting blue flowers are indeed frequent in nature when considering the color vision and preferences of bees.
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spelling pubmed-78596482021-02-05 Fragmentary Blue: Resolving the Rarity Paradox in Flower Colors Dyer, Adrian G. Jentsch, Anke Burd, Martin Garcia, Jair E. Giejsztowt, Justyna Camargo, Maria G. G. Tjørve, Even Tjørve, Kathleen M. C. White, Peter Shrestha, Mani Front Plant Sci Plant Science Blue is a favored color of many humans. While blue skies and oceans are a common visual experience, this color is less frequently observed in flowers. We first review how blue has been important in human culture, and thus how our perception of blue has likely influenced the way of scientifically evaluating signals produced in nature, including approaches as disparate as Goethe’s Farbenlehre, Linneaus’ plant taxonomy, and current studies of plant-pollinator networks. We discuss the fact that most animals, however, have different vision to humans; for example, bee pollinators have trichromatic vision based on UV-, Blue-, and Green-sensitive photoreceptors with innate preferences for predominantly short-wavelength reflecting colors, including what we perceive as blue. The subsequent evolution of blue flowers may be driven by increased competition for pollinators, both because of a harsher environment (as at high altitude) or from high diversity and density of flowering plants (as in nutrient-rich meadows). The adaptive value of blue flowers should also be reinforced by nutrient richness or other factors, abiotic and biotic, that may reduce extra costs of blue-pigments synthesis. We thus provide new perspectives emphasizing that, while humans view blue as a less frequently evolved color in nature, to understand signaling, it is essential to employ models of biologically relevant observers. By doing so, we conclude that short wavelength reflecting blue flowers are indeed frequent in nature when considering the color vision and preferences of bees. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7859648/ /pubmed/33552110 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.618203 Text en Copyright © 2021 Dyer, Jentsch, Burd, Garcia, Giejsztowt, Camargo, Tjørve, Tjørve, White and Shrestha. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Plant Science
Dyer, Adrian G.
Jentsch, Anke
Burd, Martin
Garcia, Jair E.
Giejsztowt, Justyna
Camargo, Maria G. G.
Tjørve, Even
Tjørve, Kathleen M. C.
White, Peter
Shrestha, Mani
Fragmentary Blue: Resolving the Rarity Paradox in Flower Colors
title Fragmentary Blue: Resolving the Rarity Paradox in Flower Colors
title_full Fragmentary Blue: Resolving the Rarity Paradox in Flower Colors
title_fullStr Fragmentary Blue: Resolving the Rarity Paradox in Flower Colors
title_full_unstemmed Fragmentary Blue: Resolving the Rarity Paradox in Flower Colors
title_short Fragmentary Blue: Resolving the Rarity Paradox in Flower Colors
title_sort fragmentary blue: resolving the rarity paradox in flower colors
topic Plant Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7859648/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33552110
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.618203
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