Living jewels: iterative evolution of iridescent blue leaves from helicoidal cell walls.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Structural colour is responsible for the remarkable metallic blue colour seen in the leaves of several plants. Species belonging to only ten genera have been investigated to date, revealing four photonic structures responsible for structurally coloured leaves. One of these is the helicoidal cell wall, known to create structural colour in the leaf cells of five taxa. Here we investigate a broad selection of land plants to understand the phylogenetic distribution of this photonic structure in leaves.

Methods

We identified helicoidal structures in the leaf epidermal cells of 19 species using transmission electron microscopy. Pitch measurements of the helicoids were compared with the reflectance spectra of circularly polarized light from the cells to confirm

SUBMITTER: Lundquist CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11161568 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature