Flowers "wave" of insects to attract their attention, scientists have discovered.

Flowers "wave" of insects to attract their attention, scientists have discovered. The finding helps explain why many flowers waft in the breeze, and reveals something unknown hitherto used to attract pollinators. The scientists made the discovery by studying wildflowers common known as sea campion on the Welsh coast. Mobile flowers are most often visited by insects and produce more seeds, they report in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

Moving flowers also attract a wider variety of insect species that flowers more static. For years, biologists have known that the flowers use striking colours, perfumes, developed shaped petals and nectar to attract pollinating insects like bees and flies. Yet, nobody had ever seriously considered if wafting in the wind acted as a similar signal.

Seaside inspiration "I was on the beach watching the flowers wave in the wind at my daughter's birthday, and I wondered why they have stems and may have damaged during a presentation of these habitats" said John Warren of the University of Aberystwyth.

He therefore sought that research has already been done, and we found very few answers. "The only reference I found the movement to attract pollinators said it was unlikely to be significant because the insects are not good at detecting movement, which is clearly rubbish." To learn more, Dr. Warren and James Penri experienced colleague on Wednesday Campion (Silene maritima) more and more on an exposed coast in a site of special scientific interest in Cardigan Bay in west Wales.

They observed 300 specially developed flowers of different lengths of stem, recording how much each flower moved the wind, how often it has been visited by insects and for how long and how many seeds it has to produce.