Fluorescent Farming

I and another classmate, Olesya, went out for a UV-light night hike. We were hoping to see some scorpions fluoresce under the light. We were surprised to see an abundance of orange-fluorescent lichen on many of the rocks of Anza-Borrego. Many plants had parts that somewhat glowed under UV as well. What caught our eye however was a small bright green fluorescent orb on the ground. When we looked closer, we realized it was a small plant that was oozing fluorescent liquid. There were a couple more of the same species doing the same thing. I thought this was odd since breaking/crushing the plant did not seem to cause it to ooze this liquid. We kept walking with the UV-flashlight, and found an ant's nest. This nest stood out from the others in that it appeared to be active and it had a bunch of fluorescent bits of plant material scattered on it. The ants were carrying around the pieces of plant material, presumably at least some of it being the small plant we saw we the fluorescent substance oozing from. It was interesting to see that this was the only local anthill active during the night and that their entire nest was lit up with fluorescent green specks.

Publicado el marzo 13, 2022 12:44 MAÑANA por amihalik