THE WORLDS MOST INTENSE AND SHINEY BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL - THE MARBLE BERRY The Marble Berry - Pollia condensata is a true jewel of the forest and a marvel of the natural world. Its defining feature are its incredibly shiny berries. Native to the forested regions of Africa, the marble berry is a perennial herbaceous plant with stoloniferous stems and intensely shiny, metallic blue berries - the most intense of any known biological material! For the complete article click onto the following link: seedsofeaden/ornamental-plants-k7/the-marble-berry-pollia-condensata-b87.html The morpho butterfly and the scarab beetle are the only living things that come close to the Pollia berry, and as with the beetle, the berrys skin has no pigment or no colored cells. The berry works by bouncing back the blue light, and letting the rest of the light through. Take a closer look and you will be able to see pinpricks of red, orange, green and violet. The berries have a total reflectivity of about 30%, and while this may not sound a lot it is infact about the same as a silvered glass mirror. Strangely the berries have no nutritional value so it is believed that the reflective qualities evolved to make the the berry attractive to certain species of bird and therefore aid seed dispersal. The birds sometimes decorate their nest with the berries, which over the long term also helps to disperse the seeds. Originally discovered in Angola, West Africa, the surface of the marble berry has an especially smooth and transparent skin which reflects light in the same way that a mirror does. Beneath the skin lies.... To continue reading click onto the following link: seedsofeaden/ornamental-plants-k7/the-marble-berry-pollia-condensata-b87.html
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 09:55:28 +0000
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