African fruit 'brightest' thing in nature but does not use pigment to create its extraordinary col

Originally posted by tauristercus
Evolutionary theory states that specific traits within an organism or species "evolved" through a process of natural selection. This is a hypothetical process whereby randomly occurring mutations are "locked" in if they provide some kind of advantage to the species.

However, having read the article explaining the physics behind this particular plants ability to refract light of a specific frequency, I have to admit to being somewhat stumped as to how and why all the necessary individual sub-components evolved separately and yet were ALL available exactly when the plant required the ability to refract light with a blue frequency component.
After all, this refraction "trick" is a highly complex process and reliant on every sub-component having already evolved at some earlier time, and successfully stored and retained, within the plants genetic structure. So if the sub-components individually (presumably) provide little or no significant survival value to this species, then one has to ask the following questions:
(1) why did the sub-components evolve in the 1st place ?
(2) once evolved, why were they retained within the genetic framework ?

Why puzzle over those questions?

Why not let this cause you to think more critically and postulate that the Evolutionary Theory that you site, could in fact be dead wrong?

Does this even occur to you?

Originally posted by elevenaugust

Originally posted by reficul
looks pretty cool! can you eat it???

That's a good question and here's the answer from discovermagazine.com:

Why does Pollia have such bright fruit? Here’s a clue: you can’t eat them. Well, you can eat them, but there would be no point, because they provide next to no nourishment. They’re practically a dry seed-filled husk. Here’s another clue: Pollia grows in the same regions as another plant, Psychotria peduncularis, which also produces blue berries.

The team thinks that Pollia is mimicking the tasty blue fruits of its neighbour, tempting birds with the promise of tasty pulp, but rewarding them with nothing but seeds to carry. Alternatively, birds could collect the fruits to decorate their nests, or to use in mating displays. Either way, Pollia gets a free ride, and avoids having to spend energy on making sweet, nourishing tissues. It’s an evolutionary triumph of style over substance.

Although using animals for dispersal is a strategy common to many plants, most are forced to devote precious calories to produce a sweet, fleshy pulp. This one, however, is able to spread its seeds simply by showing its true iridescent colors.

Now this IS interesting. Has it been proven that this plant is mimicking another plant? If so, can we put some of these next to another plant and have then take on the different colors of that plant?

Seems there would be applications for this in military camouflage.

reply to post by elevenaugust

empting birds with the promise of tasty pulp, but rewarding them with nothing but seeds to carry

Haha, that made me lol. Troll fruit

Bird: Ah look, a tasty treat ^_^

Fruit: Nope.avi

Bird: Ah man

Fruit: You mad brah?

Bird:

Fruit: He mad

Originally posted by MDDoxs
Very cool.

I would be the first to eat those berries i am afraid to say, they look delicious.

Nature can be and is the inspiration for much of what we have to.

We continue to learn new things as we try to emulate parts of nature that can best serve us.

Good find

Normally in nature.. Shiny means,""eat me and your dead"..lol

2nd

reply to post by reficul


And you found that out AFTER you married her!!!

Way to go, Idaho.

reply to post by elevenaugust


OP- Incredible. The fact this plant had the capacity to possibly recognise a neighbouring plant and mimic it blows my mind.

The ancient Egyptians were so taken by the metallic gold shine of Scarab beetles that they created hieroglyphs of a beetle rolling the sun through the sky. A lot of people were probably turned off by the fact that these were dung beetles commonly seen rolling up balls of dung.

Maybe that's why Isaac Newton and William Hyde Wallaston used the "good glass" to expand the suns spectrum prismatically so they could decode the spectral lines of the sun?

Who would have known they could have used designer berries with different chiral structures

"But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. "Mt6:29 #GodIsAmazing #Creator

Awesome. love this stuff.

I am sure the beetle would be crunchier than the berries. 2nd line

Originally posted by reficul
looks pretty cool! can you eat it???

Of course not ... Everybody knows there is no blue food.

I had a car that was painted something like that along time ago

Beautiful complexion!

I would imagine it has developed this as a defense mechanism to predators/enviornment.It helps it survive.Maybe this pigment deters certain predators whether they cant see it as well or the color isn't desirable.

Originally posted by Sittingbulls
I would imagine it has developed this as a defense mechanism to predators/enviornment.It helps it survive.Maybe this pigment deters certain predators whether they cant see it as well or the color isn't desirable.

Nope.. read the article. Its so that birds are attracted to it yet can not eat it.. they drop it and its then dispersed. It "mimics" the color of another berry that is edible in the same area. I can attest to birds liking shiny things.. I have a medium sized parrot that tries to take my head off to get to my diamond earrings. He ever swallows one... its cornish hen for dinner.

reply to post by tauristercus


Don't question evolution too much - it all starts to crumble like a pavlova crust if you do. Besides, you'll have the evolutionists all over you for doubting their religion.

reply to post by elevenaugust


"dry seed filled husks"

wow! they would make excellent Christmas decorations.

reply to post by tauristercus



Ask your avatar.