Chelsea Whyte, contributor
Aquilegia longissima, a columbine beloved by hawkmoths (Image: Scott A. Hodges, UCSB)
Columbine flowers are dressed to impress. They may as well have a top hat to go with their tails, which are actually long nectar spurs that extend from the base of their petals and lure in pollinating insects and birds. These trailing tendrils off the back of the petals look here like flowing tresses of hair, and give Aquilegia longissima a delicate beauty.
Researchers from Harvard University and the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered that the key to the different lengths of columbine spurs is the shape of the cells inside. Previously, it was thought that the different lengths were due to the number of cells.
A hawkmoth gets busy with a columbine (Image: Scott A. Hodges, UCSB)
Columbines are a living example of evolutionary diversity - they come in over 70 species, each with flowers tailored to the length of their pollinators' tongues. The short, curled spurs of Aquilegia vulgaris attract bees, while the longer tails of the appropriately-named Aquilegia longissima appeal to hawkmoths.
To determine the exact differences between columbines that attract hummingbirds and those that attract insects, the researchers made more than 13,000 measurements to count the number of cells along different spurs.