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A Gentiana flower discovered only a couple of years ago in Tibet has
been dubbed the world’s shiest flower for its ability to close in as
little as seven seconds after being touched.
Chinese scientists recently published a study conducted on four species
of Gentiana discovered in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, focusing primarily
on the flowers’ ability to quickly respond to being touched. Plants are
generally perceived as static organisms, with the only notable
exceptions being carnivorous plants capable of movements designed to
trap inspects inside. However, the four new species of Gentiana flowers
discovered in the plateaus of Tibet have faster reactions than any other
plants observed before. According to the above-mentioned study, these
flowers can close completely in just 7 seconds. This ability has earned
the Gentiana the unofficial title of ‘world’s shiest flower’.
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The Gentiana flowers were discovered in 2020 near a lake in Nagchu,
Tibet autonomous region, by a team of researchers at Hubei University’s
School of Resources and Environmental Science. One of the members
accidentally touched one of these flowers that they had never seen
before, and while reaching for their camera to take some photos of it,
they were shocked to see nothing but a bud in its place.
“It was startling to witness with the naked eye. The flowers disappeared
momentarily in front of you,” said Dai Can, a professor at Hubei
University’s School of Resources and Environmental Science, one of the
scientists who led the study.
To prove that they weren’t hallucinating, the team members touched the
other small flowers in the area and, sure enough, they all started
closing. This behavior was very intriguing as neither the domestic nor
foreign literature on the genus Gentiana mentioned this sort of
behavior.
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Upon further research, scientists discovered four species of Gentiana –
G. pseudoaquatica; G. prostrata var. karelinii; G. clarkei, and an
unnamed species – that exhibited this shy behavior. Upon being touched,
their flowers would close in 7 to 210 seconds, which makes them the
fastest-reacting flowers in the world.
Researchers have not been able to show exactly why these four Gentiana
flowers close the way that they do, but they do have some theories.
While studying the flowers, they noticed that they were favorites of
bumblebees, which apparently aren’t the gentlest of pollinators. Nearly
80 percent of flowers experienced exterior damage, with 6 percent
showing injuries to the ovary.
The flowers’ closing mechanism is believed to be an evolutionary means
of defense against bumblebees, discouraging them from collecting nectar
and thus protecting the ovary. However, another plausible theory turns
this one on its head.
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Could it be that the fascinating flowers close to encourage bumblebees
to transfer pollen more efficiently, since a closed flower signals to
the insect that it has already been visited and that it needs to find
another viable Gentiana. Scientists don’t yet know, but both theories
are just as plausible.
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