All of you know landing strip! It is the array of lights which the Pilots ‘see’ to land their planes.
But (the but and the blog are inseparable!); did you know that there is an invisible landing strip all over your Garden! Now it is not a top secret landing strip for those ALIEN ships in the area 51! But these LANDING STRIPS are INVISIBLE to the human eye!
They are for a special kind of flyers!
One of the most important species in the world! Not humans (of course not! In fact Humans are some of the LEAST important species in the world!); but insects! Specifically the BEES!
In the book called greatest show on Earth by Richard Dawkins, he states how some flowers smell and taste good and they attract certain insects and humans alike!
These are the ones they have to attract so that they can help them in pollination! In fact the insects see ultraviolet spectrum so that they literally have an ultraviolet landing strip outlined for their landing!
So this ultraviolet (UV) landing strip refers to hidden markings on flower petals that are invisible to humans but brightly visible to pollinators like bees and butterflies. These creatures see a wider spectrum of light, allowing them to follow these specialized UV coloration in flowers targets directly to nectar and pollen!
While humans see a uniform color (like solid yellow), pollinators see a distinct bullseye or runway pattern. The outer edges of the petals reflect UV light, while the center absorbs it, creating a high-contrast guide leading to the reproductive core of the flower!
Flowers create these landing strips using internal pigments called flavonoids. These chemicals absorb UV light in the center while the outer edges reflect it, acting like a natural billboard!
This setup saves energy for both species. Bees find food faster without wasting energy searching blindly, and flowers get efficiently pollinated!
Common Flower Examples are
The ‘landing strip’ in Dandelions appear solid yellow to us, but feature a stark, dark UV absorption center for insects while in the sunflowers the center glows dark and concentrated, acting as a massive target zone while the evening Primrose displays sharp, radial guidelines pointing directly to its nectar!
And these flowers always provide just enough nectar so that the insect goes to another flower to pollinate! Very less and it will not stay and too much nectar means it will not go! Just enough! A balance in nature is all its about!
While we marvel at the human technology and one shot the whole HUMAN LANDING STRIP gets closed! While these millions of Landing Strips go one without any issues unless the average HUMAN starts interfering with them!
So let the BEE be! And do not try to destroy their LANDING STRIP too!
Too complicated!? Leave it! Just like how Kirron Kher says! Chaddo!
Now try ‘Landing’ on your bed!
Shubh ratri…
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