Discover the world's most 'sensitive' flower

Chinese scientists have announced the discovery of four new species of plants in the Genesis Gentian that can close their petals for a few seconds when touched.

The discovery led by Professor Dai Can from the School of Environmental and Natural Resources Sciences of Hubei University was made on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in northwest China.

According to research published in Science Bulletin, the four new species all belong to the genus Gentiana, including G. pseudoaquatica, G. prostrata var. karelinii, G. clarkei and an unnamed species. With the ability to close their petals in just 7 - 210 seconds after being impacted, these are the most sensitive and responsive flowers in the world.

The rapid movement of plants has always intrigued scientists and nature lovers, because unlike animals, they are often considered static creatures.

Only a few known species have the ability to open and close leaves in seconds, such as the shame plant and the Venus flytrap. Before the discovery of Gentiana, the only group of plants that exhibited petal-closing behavior when stimulated was Drosera. However, the most responsive Drosera plants also took 2 to 10 minutes to completely close the petals.

"It's truly amazing to see with the naked eye. Gentiana flowers disappear right in front of you", emphasized the research team leader.

Gentiana flowers close quickly when affected by humans and insects.

Gentiana's rapid petal-closing behavior may be a defense mechanism to prevent repeated incursion by wasps. Due to the insect's large size and tendency to slit flower tubes to obtain nectar, 98.8% of the flowers that bumblebees "visit" showed signs of closing their wings, the study found. The damage to the flowers is significant. Nearly 80% of flowers have external damage and 6% damage to the ovary.

Another possible explanation is that these plants have evolved to encourage wasps to transfer pollen more efficiently, since a closed flower will signal to the insect that it has visited before and should look for another flower.