California Poppies: Beyond Brilliant

Remember when Dorothy and her friends stumbled upon a field of brightly colored flowers on their way to Oz?

Far from mere Technicolor magic, the poppy (Papaveraceae family) is uniquely designed to pop with bold color. The California poppy is particularly intense, and scientists recently discovered the secret. At the surface are rows of cells with unusually jagged shapes that function like miniature prisms, focusing the incoming light as it passes to the pigments below. Some species of the Papaveraceae family already contain some of the highest pigmentation levels known in flowers. But the unique ridges on California poppies help make the colors even more intense.

This is just another example of the many astounding ways the Creator fashioned common flowers of the field to dazzle us and remind us to trust and praise him.

(A) In this cutaway of a poppy petal, notice the ridges on the top. They act like prisms, focusing the light on pigments below.

(B) In this close-up of a single cell on the petal surface, notice the high concentration of pigment (p) at the bottom. The light streaming down from the surface bounces off this pigment and creates intense color.

Article was taken from Answers magazine, July–August, 2019, 38.