Claire. Posted February 22, 2017 #1 Share Posted February 22, 2017 How Buttercups Get Their Yellow Gloss If you've ever played the childhood game of holding a buttercup under your chin to see if you like butter, you might have wondered why the cheery little flowers are the only type that provide the requisite reflection on your skin. A new study reveals the answer: Buttercups are unique among flowers. Their bright-yellow gloss results from a one-of-a-kind combination of pigments and anatomical structures that create an optical thin film. These films reflect light much like a sheen of oil on a parking-lot puddle, said study leader Casper J. van der Kooi, who studies the reproductive biology of plants and animals at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. "Pigmented thin films haven't been found in flowers before," van der Kooi told Live Science. Read more: Live Science 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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