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Flowers may be big antennas for bees’ electrical signals

Plants might use the signals to communicate when to trigger nectar production

A bee flies toward a yellow buttercup flower.

When a bee approaches a buttercup, the flower can sense electrical changes triggered by the insect’s flapping wings and alert nearby plants via its own electrical signals, new research suggests.

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By Rachel Berkowitz

Flowering plants may have a secret power for knowing when to lure pollinators.

They could act as antennas for bees’ electrical signals and transmit those signals through the soil, biophysicist Daniel Robert reported March 6 in Minneapolis at the American Physical Society meeting.