Denver Botanic Gardens – Waring House 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Flowers and Insects, entangled forever - Scientist view of Flower Adaptation
By Arathi Seshadri
By Arathi Seshadri
Bright colors, sophisticated floral traits, intoxicating fragrance are all forms of floral enticement for pollinators. Elaborate features of flowers augment pollination and plant reproduction. With their landing pads, beards or nectar spurs, flowers have specially evolved traps to capture pollen from the insect body. Catch a glimpse of how flowers have intricately co-evolved with insects to achieve enhanced pollination.
Arathi Seshadri is a Research Assistant Professor at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. She has her degrees in horticulture, plant breeding, genetics and ecology. Before coming to Colorado she has served in the research faculties of Indian Institute of Science, University of Minnesota, St Paul; University of Kansas, Lawrence and Adelphi University, NY. Her specialty is in flower adaptation, floral traits and pollinator behavior. She has published several papers on insect behavior, plant reproduction and floral adaptations, and is frequently an invited speaker in the research communities of her field