The Flower That Turns Transparent! 🌺

Here's something cool I learnt today!

There's this flower native to northern and central Japan called the skeleton flower. Scientifically described as Diphylleia grayi, it looks like just yet another regular plant with a bunch of mundane white flowers:

source

But things get interesting when it starts to rain or it comes in contact with water in some other way.

Then an incredible transformation begins and the white pedals become transparent, hence the common name, turning into something like this:

source

And once they dry out, they regain their original coloration.

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But how does this work? Well, it turns out that the petals are very thin and have a cellulose-rich structure which allows water to permeate their surface with ease. When they are dry, the petals scatter light due to the air-filled spaces within their structure, resulting in the white color.

However, when the petals get wet the air is replaced with water and light passes through them uniformly making them appear transparent.

When they dry out, with the water gone, the air returns and they return to their original white form.

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This unique trait may be a totally random adaptation although some think it may help the plant by reducing visibility to herbivores during rain.

Regardless, it's really cool 😎

Unfortunately I couldn't find any videos showing the process but there are some really cool photos if you Google the species name!

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Ok frens, this is it for today! See you soon with more oddities from mother nature !

Posted Using INLEO