Despite their usual white colouration, the Madonna lily (Lilium candidum) display a wide range of different emissions depending on the spectrum they are excited by. This is a range from 300 nm through to 398 nm from a range of sources, with a few steps of blending in between.
Why is this beautiful, glossy white and yellow flower glowing red, pink, and blue? A process called biofluorescence. Where we see light reflected by things like flowers, we see all of the light they don’t absorb. In this case, they only absorb a small amount of the energy and do something weird with the rest – they emit their own light. Just for an instant.
Why they do it? Well, why would you glow if you could? Much to consider!
benjo
