Vividly Coloured Poppy Flowers Due to Dense Pigmentation and Strong Scattering in Thin Petals Van Der Kooi, Casper J.; Stavenga, Doekele G
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University of Groningen Vividly coloured poppy flowers due to dense pigmentation and strong scattering in thin petals van der Kooi, Casper J.; Stavenga, Doekele G. Published in: Journal of Comparative Physiology A DOI: 10.1007/s00359-018-01313-1 IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2019 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): van der Kooi, C. J., & Stavenga, D. G. (2019). Vividly coloured poppy flowers due to dense pigmentation and strong scattering in thin petals. 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For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 07-10-2021 Journal of Comparative Physiology A (2019) 205:363–372 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-018-01313-1 ORIGINAL PAPER Vividly coloured poppy flowers due to dense pigmentation and strong scattering in thin petals Casper J. van der Kooi1 · Doekele G. Stavenga2 Received: 17 October 2018 / Revised: 19 December 2018 / Accepted: 24 December 2018 / Published online: 28 January 2019 © The Author(s) 2019 Abstract The flowers of poppies (Papaveraceae) exhibit bright colours, despite their thin and floppy petals. We investigated the optical properties of flowers of Papaver rhoeas, P. dubium, Meconopsis cambrica and Argemone polyanthemos using a combined approach of anatomy, spectrophotometry and optical modelling. The petals of Papaver flowers are composed of only three cell layers, an upper and lower epidermal layer, which are densely filled with pigment, and an unpigmented mesophyll layer. Dense pigmentation together with strong scattering structures, composed of serpentine cell walls and air cavities, cause the striking poppy colours. We discuss how various aspects of the optical signal contribute to the flower’s visibility to pollinators. Keywords Papaver · Pollination · Anthocyanin · Bee vision · Reflectance Introduction Lee 2007; Vignolini et al. 2012; van der Kooi et al. 2014). Pigments absorbing in a specific wavelength range filter Flowers have been called sensory billboards (sensu Raguso the light flux travelling inside the petal, giving the flower a 2004), because they feature numerous traits to entice pollina- certain hue. For example, blue-absorbing carotenoids create tors. The bewildering diversity in floral colours is considered yellow colours, and blue–green-absorbing anthocyanins cre- to have evolved with respect to the visual perception of their ate red colours. Though the chemistry, molecular synthesis pollinators (e.g., Barth 1991; Chittka and Menzel 1992; Dyer and evolution of floral pigments have been extensively stud- et al. 2012; Muchhala et al. 2014; Shrestha et al. 2016). The ied (e.g., Koes et al. 1994; Mol et al. 1998; Grotewold 2006; colours of flowers are due to two basic optical principles: Rausher 2008; Hopkins and Rausher 2011; Zhao and Tao (1) reflection and scattering of light by the floral structures, 2015; Sheehan et al. 2016), much remains unknown about and (2) selective absorption in a specific wavelength range how light propagates in a flower and how backscattering by floral pigments (van der Kooi et al. 2016, 2019). Scat- structures and pigments are tuned. tering occurs because petals consist of media with different We recently studied the pigmentation and scattering prop- refractive indices, such as cell walls, air cavities, water-filled erties of 39 species of flower, and found that flowers of the vacuoles, and thus incident light is reflected and scattered at common poppy, Papaver rhoeas, are exceptional in various their interfaces (Kay et al. 1981; Kevan and Backhaus 1998; ways. P. rhoeas has fairly large and exceedingly thin petals, yet they are deeply coloured and are relatively strong scat- Electronic supplementary material terers (van der Kooi et al. 2016). These findings raise the The online version of this P. rhoeas article (https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0035 9-018-01313 -1) contains question as to the anatomical details of flowers supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. that cause the extreme optical characteristics, and whether related species share similar properties. * Casper J. van der Kooi Poppies are a group of genera in the subfamily Papa- [email protected] veroideae of the Papaveraceae, which is an early diverging 1 Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, eudicot family. They include species of Papaver, Meco- University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, nopsis, and Eschscholtzia, and comprise many iconic spe- The Netherlands cies well-known for their showy flowers. Several of these 2 Computational Physics, Zernike Institute for Advanced species, such as P. rhoeas, P. somniferum (opium poppy), Materials, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, Meconopsis grandis (Himalayan poppy) and Eschscholtzia The Netherlands Vol.:(0123456789)1 3 364 Journal of Comparative Physiology A (2019) 205:363–372 californica (California poppy) are popular ornamental and to estimate the contribution of the absorbing pigments. garden plants. For a few species, the characteristics of their Measurements were taken from flowers of at least three flower colours have been studied in some detail. For exam- individuals per species. ple, the chemistry and vacuolar pH have been studied for We also investigated the angle dependence of the reflec- blue-floweredMeconopsis species (Yoshida et al. 2006). E. tance by illuminating the flat surface of a P. rhoeas petal californica has been investigated because of its pigmenta- with a rotatable fibre and collecting the reflected light with tion via the specific pigment eschscholtzxanthin (e.g., Strain another rotatable fibre, positioned at the mirror angle of 1938) and because of its ultrastructure (Wilts et al. 2018). the illumination. The latter fibre was fitted with a polar- Here, we investigate the flower colours of P. rhoeas, P. izer, which allowed measurement of reflectance spectra as a dubium (long-headed poppy), the closely related Meconop- function of angle of light incidence for both TE (transverse sis cambrica (Welsh poppy), which has both yellow and electric) and TM (transverse magnetic) light. orange colour morphs, and Argemone polyanthemos (crested prickly poppy). Using photography, spectrophotometry, opti- Anatomy cal modelling, and various anatomical techniques, we show that a high pigment content together with scattering air holes The thickness of the petals was measured on pieces placed cause the typical coloration of these thin flowers. We discuss in between two cover slips with a thickness gauge. We meas- our results in context of the plant’s ecology and visual ecol- ured the thickness for each flower five times on a transect ogy of their pollinators. from the proximal to distal part of a petal, for 3–5 indi- viduals per species (Table 1). The pigment distribution of the flowers was examined via transverse sections of flower Materials and methods pieces. Flower pieces were embedded in 6% agarose solution at a temperature of approximately 55 °C, i.e., close to the Plant material and photography temperature of solidification. Transverse sections were cut using a sharp razor blade and immediately examined with All flower samples were obtained from road sides and the Zeiss Universal microscope. Satisfactory results could meadows around the campus of the University of Gron- be obtained only for M. cambrica. Essentially, the same dis- ingen, except for flowers of A. polyanthemos, which were tribution was observed for the other studied species, but the grown from seeds purchased at De Bolster, Epe, The Neth- very thin Papaver petals precluded obtaining presentably erlands. Flowers were photographed with a digital cam- clear pictures. era (Nikon D70) equipped with an F Micro-Nikkor macro objective (60 mm, f2.8, Nikon, Tokyo, Japan). Petal details Optical modelling were photographed with an Olympus DP70 digital camera mounted on an Olympus SZX16 stereomicroscope (Olym- We used the measured reflectance and transmittance spectra pus, Tokyo, Japan), or with a Zeiss Universal microscope of the petals to calculate the petals’ overall absorption and (Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany) equipped with a DCM50 scattering parameters. A flower can be considered as a stack camera (Mueller Optronic, Erfurt, Germany). of layers, where different layers have specific scattering and pigmentation properties (van der Kooi et al. 2016). Light Spectrophotometry microscopical