Fig. 6: The optical properties and ecological function of pseudonectaries.

A wild-type flower under visible light (a), ultraviolet light (b), and bee vision (c). Scale bars: 1 mm. d–f Photographs show honey bees (Apis mellifera) forging for nectar. Red arrows indicate the pseudonectaries. The pseudonectary in e is magnified and shown in f. g Petals and pseudonectaries in a wild-type flower, with all other floral organs being omitted. h–j Visitation of a petal by a honeybee. k Schematic layout of the mock and TRV2-NidaYAB5-treated flowers with strong phenotypic changes for pollination studies. Comparisons of the visiting frequency (l) and probing time (m) of honey bees, the most effective pollinators, on the mock and TRV2-NidaYAB5-treated flowers. The asterisks indicate the significant differences by two-side Wilcoxon rank sum test (P < 0.01 and P < 0.001, respectively) between samples. p = 0.006654 for l and p = 1.396e⁻⁰⁸ for m. n = 18, both for mock and TRV2-NidaYAB5-treated flowers for four independent experiment days. Error bars indicate the standard error (SE) of the mean visiting frequency or probing time of 4 days. Data are presented as mean values ± SE. Source data for l and m are provided as a Source Data file.