Buttercup Clouds
by Stephen Melia
Title
Buttercup Clouds
Artist
Stephen Melia
Medium
Photograph - Print
Description
Buttercup against a blue summer sky buttercups get their bright colour from yellow pigments in the petals’ surface layer, and their shiny gloss is thanks to layers of air just beneath the surface reflecting the light like mirrors. The glowing phenomenon is unique in plants, although something similar happens with some butterfly and bird wings.And buttercup flowers also track the sun. On cold days, the petals make a cup shape like a satellite dish, collecting solar energy from sunshine and warming up the flowers, which makes them even more inviting to insects, perhaps because it helps them to keep up their own temperature.The cup-shaped flower also focuses the sunlight into its centre where the reproductive organs are warmed up, boosting the ripening of pollen in the stamens and improving the chances of fertilisation in the carpels.
Uploaded
May 29th, 2020
Statistics
Viewed 151 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/10/2024 at 10:15 AM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
