(lyrics)

AURA

I’ve loved Lantana flowers forever, whether at Phantom or wherever, and the butterflies that love them too. But I never realized what was going on with the flowers to attract them until I met Martha Weiss, a University of California grad student in 1991, and she told me about what she’d written up for a scientific mag called Nature about how not just these flowers, but flowers from many different plant families from around the world, including at least 20 percent of all animal-pollinated plants, present color changes that say, hey, come-on, the nectar is ready. She described how baby butterflies she separated from their parents for her experiment go to both red and yellow lantana, but soon learn that mature red lantana doesn’t offer as much nectar as the younger yellow flowers, with the result they soon start to concentrate on the yellow. Not just that, but the plants seem equally clever because by retaining the older blossoms for a while, they present a more dramatic dash of color on the landscape, and so attract butterflies that otherwise might go to something more colorful. She said birds, bats, and bees all follow the same learning curve. The plants basically put on a more enticing dress when it’s time to, you know, get pollinated.