RV Lifestyle Either way, the poppies have returned – fulfilling their ancient, flashy promise. They pretty much skipped 2018 – the year with no winter. But spring-seekers and flower junkies have been waiting this spring with trembling anticipation − having noted the steady succession of wet Pacific storms in December and January, and on through February. As a result, the flowers have emerged on the slopes of Picacho Peak. I love all of the flowers – the lupine and globemallow and the yellow brittle brush. But the poppies have my heart. Those dreamlike petals are only three cells thick. The cells on the top and bottom are loaded with pigments. The botanists – who printed their results in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A – said that they could find no other reports of a greater concentration of pigment in the natural world. And those cells are folded and fitted together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. This creates a whole network of little air spaces built into the flower. As a result of this remarkable structure, the light comes in through that top layer of folded cells and then bounces around inside the cells – passing back and forth through the pigment. The rays of light refract, a sunset in a layer of cells. All of this brilliant manipulation of colour has everything to do with the insect pollinators which the poppies are working to attract. Bear in mind that in a good wildflower year, those pollinators have a whole hillside of clamouring flowers to choose from. Poppies have evolved to produce different colours, depending on their pollinators. This enables them to attract a wide variety of pollinators. Other researchers have come up with some intriguing theories on the extreme adaptability of poppies, which have adapted to Worth Pondering… But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, it’s bloom is shed. —Robert Burns 24 | www.snowbirds.org
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