No abstract

Colour has attracted the interest and attention of many of the most gifted intellects of all time. Ideas of early thinkers were not-and could not have beengrasped on a scientific level without knowledge of a kind that lay far in the future. One character that is being considered is the colourful surfaces of living tissues, which could hardly have been visualized without a corresponding reference to the microscale parallel. Millions of years before man made manipulated synthetic structures, biological systems were using nanoscale architecture to produce striking optical effects 1. Here we show the microsculpture of the adaxial surface of flower petals from the asphodel, the Stork's-bill and the common poppy by using optical, scanning electron and atomic force microscopy. Microsculpture has been studied in leaves 2, 3, 4, 5 and pollen grains 6 of higher plants. To the best of our knowledge imaging and nanoscale morphometry of petals has not been reported hitherto. Our findings