Time-lapse footage reveals how lily flowers bloom Skip to main content

Time-lapse footage reveals how lily flowers bloom

By Victoria Gill
Science and nature reporter, BBC News

Advertisement
Time-lapse reveals lily blooming
Time-lapse footage has revealed remarkable detail about how a lily blooms.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers said that the discovery shows why the flowers' petals have characteristically crinkled edges.
The footage's careful measurements reveal that the lily petals grow longer at the edges than in the middle.
This puts stress on the bud, eventually bursting it open.
PhD student Haiyi Liang and Professor L Mahadevan from Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, US carried out the research.
The scientists marked a lily bud with dots along each petal's edge and "midrib" or central vein.
These dots were markers that enabled them to measure every change in the size and shape of the flower as it went from bud to bloom.
Lily bud opening (Image: PNAS)
I study nature because I am curious, like all of us
Professor L Mahadevan
Harvard University

More on flowering plants from BBC Wildlife Finder
"I noticed that petals of some flowers are wrinkled and thought that perhaps [these wrinkles were] functional and may play a role in opening," Professor Mahadevan told BBC News. "So I decided to look at it more carefully."
The scientists placed a lily (Lilium casablanca) with its stem immersed in water and filmed it for four and a half days until the flower was fully open.
The experiment revealed that the petals' edges elongated up to 40% more than their midribs.
This difference in the rate and amount of growth created stress that eventually burst open the bud, and resulted in petals with their familiar wrinkles.
The scientists wrote in their paper that, "in addition to infusing a scientific aesthetic into a thing of beauty," their study could aid the design of tiny motors or switches.
"Someone might be inspired to use this natural design, where the edges drive the interior, to build an actuator - a film that changes shape," explained Professor Mahadevan.
"That might be useful as a means to store information or to flip a switch.
"[But] that's not what drove me at all to work on the problem.
"I study nature because I am curious, like all of us. But if we can learn some general principle that someone else might put to use, that is fantastic."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9429000/9429516.stm
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Bhaddanta Chandramani Mahathera

The Life Story of A Distinguished And Outstanding Bhikkhu The Most Venerable Saradawpharagree Sri Bhaddanta Chandramani Mahathera The Buddhist missionary Saradaw Ashin U Chandramani was endowed with great gifts and led a famous and long life. He was a very well known, distinguished and outstanding Bhikkhu Mahathera. While living in the Kushinagar Monastery, a place close to where the Lord Buddha had passed away to Nirvana, the Government of India had offered, and he had accepted, the highest, most honourable and respected title "Guru Guru MahaGuru". He became the first ever President of all Buddhists in India.A World Buddhist Conference took place in Kathmandu during the reign of King Mahindra of Nepal. The Conference was very well attended by over one hundred thousand Buddhists from various parts of the world and it was opened by King Mahindra himself. As requested by the King, Saradawpharagree blessed all the participants with the power of Triple Gems...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do...
1 comment
Read more

Three Dead, Seven Injured by Artillery Shells in Two Incidents in Myanmar’s Mrauk-U

By MIN AUNG KHINE 2 December 2019 Sittwe, Rakhine State –Three Mrauk-U township residents died and four others were injured when an artillery shell struck their community in the Ale Zay quarter of Mrauk-U town on Monday afternoon after 4 p.m. A month-old girl, a 4-year-old boy and a 30-year-old woman died, according to Dr. Khin Maung Yin, the head of Mrauk-U hospital. He said, “A man and three other women were injured. One of the women sustained severe injures to her left leg and her right knee was dislocated. The injured will be operated on.” Details of what occurred were not yet known. A few hours earlier, three civilians were injured when an artillery shell fell on the village of Na Leik in Mrauk-U Township, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, on Monday at around 1 p.m., according to Yan Aung Pyin village-tract administrator U Sein Hla Aung. Two females, aged 13 and 27, and an 18-year-old male were injured in the incident, he said. Three people were hit by shrapnel and we have...
Post a Comment
Read more