There are scientific questions that arise from the simplest of observations. Why do poppies open their petals to the sun? What exactly happens inside that flower when the temperature rises? Ismael D\u00edaz Reina, a graduate recognised in the Biological and Health Sciences category at the EDUCA EDTECH Foundation\u2019s 2026 Academic Excellence Awards, decided to look beyond the obvious question and study something that few researchers had explored in the common poppy: its ability to regulate the temperature of its flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The common poppy (Papaver rhoeas) is one of the most recognisable species in the Mediterranean landscape. Found in fields, along roadsides and on uncultivated land, its red flower is so familiar that it almost goes unnoticed as a subject of study. However, Ismael saw an opportunity in it: could this seemingly simple flower be actively regulating its temperature to gain ecological benefits?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To answer that question, he designed a series of experiments carried out between March and April 2025 in Seville. Using a split-plot experimental design, he measured the temperature at three different points on the flower \u2014 the apex, the base and the stigma disc \u2014 and compared it with the outside temperature at different times of the day. In addition, a methacrylate cover was placed over the flowers to further increase their temperature under this \u2018treatment\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results are as interesting as they are nuanced. In general, the flowers had internal temperatures higher than those of the surrounding environment, suggesting that P. rhoeas possesses a certain capacity for thermal regulation. However, this behaviour is not uniform: under certain climatic conditions, some flowers recorded temperatures lower than the surrounding environment, whilst in other cases there were no significant differences between the inside and outside of the flower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What did become clear is that the thermal dynamics of the poppy depend on both the time of day and the ambient weather conditions. The temperature differences between blocks were statistically significant, associated with a gradual rise in temperature throughout the day. However, no significant differences were found between flowers with and without a methacrylate cover, nor between the different floral parts analysed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These results suggest that the flowers of P. rhoeas exhibit a daily thermal cycle. This finding raises important questions about how plants manage their relationship with pollinators and how the climate may affect their reproductive success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the context of climate change, understanding the thermal mechanisms of plants is not merely an exercise in academic curiosity. It is a tool for predicting how Mediterranean ecosystems will respond to increasingly extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ismael\u2019s work shows that rigorous science can arise from observing everyday life. And that a poppy, when looked at closely, has a great deal to tell us.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hay preguntas cient\u00edficas que nacen de la observaci\u00f3n m\u00e1s sencilla. \u00bfPor qu\u00e9 las amapolas abren sus p\u00e9talos al sol? \u00bfQu\u00e9 ocurre exactamente dentro de esa flor cuando la temperatura aumenta? Ismael D\u00edaz Reina, graduado reconocido en la categor\u00eda de Ciencias Biol\u00f3gicas y de la Salud en los Reconocimientos a la Excelencia Acad\u00e9mica de la Fundaci\u00f3n […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comunicacion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9959,"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9956\/revisions\/9959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educaedtech.foundation\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}