When Flowers Turn Up the Heat

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100728092631.htm
                According to this article, many flowering plants produce nectar and pollen in exchange for pollination services by mostly insects and other animals. However, interesting to know but also strange to hear, some plants have flowers that also produce heat metabolically. Renner says that a few flowers that are usually pollinated by beetles or flies produce heat to help scent emission or to attract their pollinators by creating attractive egg laying sites. She also says that such heating only occurs during flowering. She discovered that in an Asian Illicium species, during early fruit development, flowers reach their highest temperatures, which is for the selective benefit of the pollinator’s larvae. The pollinator’s larvae develop in the spent flowers. She made a surprising discovery that “the key stage of thermal warming was well after the flowers’ sexual function is over.” Experiments revealed that heated tissues are necessary for the development of the pollinator’s larvae, but “ when the tepal tips were trimmed, larvae in the nurseries died, presumably because of the temperature drop”, yet seed development was not affect by it. The authors concluded that flower heating is an ancestral trait, and that it was first evolved to attract flies through increased odor emission.


                This article relates to science/biology concepts since it’s talking about how some flowers are able to produce heat n how it attracts the pollinators. It also talks about how it is a benefit for the pollinator’s larvae when the flowers reach their highest temperature. (Thermal Warming= heat producing) Thermal warming benefits the flowers and the pollinators. For the flowers, they are able to get pollination services from the pollinators, and for the pollinators, they are able to lay their eggs and it also benefits their larvae. However, the temperature drop can cause the death of the larvae.

                This information was put in the newspaper because it is an interesting topic for us to read and learn about it. One interesting fact is that the decrease of the temperature can presumably kill the larvae. Not all plants that have flowers are able to produce heat metabolically, but only some. It’s interesting to know that usually only the flowers pollinated by beetles or flies produce heat. It’s not something that we necessarily need to care about, but it arouses our curiosity and leaves us thinking about the questions we have in mind.