Desmond Bradley

How do plants attract bees?

These busy, important insects visit and pollinate many species so that seed is made and new generations grow.

The Coen lab are studying snapdragons to find which ways they are attractive.

They have focused on their flowers which use different colour patterns to catch the bees attention. Among lots of different patterns, only a few are found in nature suggesting that these have been selected as very effective patterns.

The lab are looking at the genes which makes these colours and how they are used and mix to make the amazing colour patterns so appealing to bees.