• Question: Why are some flowers brightly coloured?

    Asked by kapayaewh to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 19 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Good question. Flowers are brightly coloured because they need to attract as many bees as possible to transfer pollen from one plant to another so that they can reproduce. Insects like bees don’t have vision like ours, so although a plant may look very brightly red or yellow to us, a bee will see it very differently – they can see in the ultraviolet spectrum!

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      ohhh, to get the bees and other insects to pollinate them. Apparently the flowers co-ordinate their colours throughout the spring and summer to attract the insects that are around at the different times of the year.

    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      To attract insects such as bees that pollinate them. As a child I had a yellow tshirt which when I wore it in the summer, always attracted bees around me!

    • Photo: Sarah Cook

      Sarah Cook answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      to make themselves more appealling to passing bee’s

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