News Plants

From a mismatch in growth, a flower blooms

Physicists reveal forces at work in the blossoming of a lily

By Daniel Strain

- More than 2 years ago

View the video

FLOWERS ABLOOM Physicists have described how speedy growth at the outer margins of lily petals cause the edges to ruffle and the flower to unfurl. PNAS

While wandering lonely as a cloud, William Wordsworth should have stopped to wonder how those daffodils bloomed.