Before the First Brilliantly Colored Flowers Bloomed, Dinosaur-Era Plants Emitted Heat to Attract Pollinators

Before the First Brilliantly Colored Flowers Bloomed, Dinosaur-Era Plants Emitted Heat to Attract Pollinators

Some plants produce heat, which has long puzzled botanists. But a new study suggests that infrared radiation is an ancient method to lure beetle pollinators

An Ancient Form of Plant Communication Still Lures Pollinators Using Heat

Blazing colors and enticing scents may be showy, but they're just one part of the toolkit plants use to lure in pollinators. Some plants produce heat, and a new study reveals for the first time that this warmth attracts insects, which in turn aid pollination. In fact, this may have been among the first pollinator-attracting strategies to emerge in the plant kingdom, hundreds of millions of years ago. These plants are cycads, a botanical group th…