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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 18, 2026

Collection and Identification of Pollen from Honey Bee Colonies

Collection and Identification of Pollen from Honey Bee Colonies

Published on: January 19, 2021

Pointillist structural color in Pollia fruit.

Silvia Vignolini¹, Paula J Rudall, Alice V Rowland

¹Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|September 29, 2012

Summary

Plants, like animals, use structural color for communication. The Pollia condensata fruit exhibits intense, pixelated blue iridescence due to unique cellulose microfibril multilayers.

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Establishing Pollination Requirements in Japanese Plum by Phenological Monitoring, Hand Pollinations, Fluorescence Microscopy and Molecular Genotyping

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Published on: November 9, 2020

Area of Science:

Plant biology
Materials science
Biophotonics

Background:

Structural color, common in animals, is less studied in plants.
Biological photonic structures generate color via light-matter interactions.
Multilayer systems are key to producing vibrant, iridescent colors.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the mechanism of structural coloration in the fruit of Pollia condensata.
To compare plant-derived structural color with animal-derived systems.
To characterize the unique optical properties of this plant's coloration.

Main Methods:

Microscopic analysis of Pollia condensata fruit epicarp.
Investigation of cellulose microfibril arrangement and multilayer formation.
Optical characterization, including Bragg reflection and circular polarization measurements.

Main Results:

Pollia condensata fruit displays intense, iridescent blue coloration caused by Bragg reflection from cellulose microfibril multilayers.
This represents a striking example of convergent evolution in photonic structures between plants and animals.
The fruit's coloration exhibits a unique pixelated appearance due to cell-to-cell variation in layer thickness.
Circularly polarized light, both left and right, is reflected from individual epidermal cells, a novel observation.

Conclusions:

The Pollia condensata fruit utilizes sophisticated multilayer photonic structures for coloration, comparable to animal systems.
Convergent evolution has led to similar structural color mechanisms using distinct biological materials in plants and animals.
The unique optical properties, including pixelation and circular polarization, highlight novel strategies in biological light manipulation.