New Study: Flowers Attract Insects with Movement

The flowers are known for attracting insect pollinators, through a variety of means, perfumes and attractive to nectar colors and shapes. According to a new study in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, scientists can now add a mechanism unlikely the list: the movement. Researchers at the University of Aberystwyth in Wales observed coastal 300 flowers, noting stem length, the range of swinging distance, how often and for how long they were visited by insects, and the number seeds were produced in the end.

These flowers with long slender stems proved to be most attractive to insects and produces most of the seeds. Researchers have concluded their proposals to move the most visible among others. There are practical limits, however. These flower stems too terribly long moved to enable insects to make a landing stable and are generally avoided. Similarly, the flowers with shorter stalks are less visited because they were difficult to differentiate from the crowd.