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1. Temperature controls phenology in continuously flowering Protea species of subtropical Africa

   https://doi.org/10.1002/aps3.1232  

   Daru, Barnabas H. ; Kling, Matthew M. ; Meineke, Emily K. ; van Wyk, Abraham E. ( March 2019 , Applications in Plant Sciences)

   Herbarium specimens are increasingly used as records of plant flowering phenology. However, most herbarium‐based studies on plant phenology focus on taxa from temperate regions. Here, we explore flowering phenologic responses to climate in the subtropical plant genusProtea(Proteaceae), an iconic group of plants that flower year‐round and are endemic to subtropical Africa.

   We present a novel, circular sliding window approach to investigate phenological patterns developed for species with year‐round flowering. We employ our method to evaluate the extent to which site‐to‐site and year‐to‐year variation in temperature and precipitation affect flowering dates using a database of 1727 herbarium records of 25Proteaspecies. We also explore phylogenetic conservatism in flowering phenology.

   We show that herbarium data combined with our sliding window approach successfully captured independently reported flowering phenology patterns (r= 0.93). Both warmer sites and warmer years were associated with earlier flowering of 3–5 days/°C, whereas precipitation variation had no significant effect on flowering phenology. Although species vary widely in phenological responsiveness, responses are phylogenetically conserved, with closely related species tending to shift flowering similarly with increasing temperature.

   Our results point to climate‐responsive phenology for this important plant genus and indicate that the subtropical, aseasonally flowering genusProteahas temperature‐driven flowering responses that are remarkably similar to those of better‐studied northern temperate plant species, suggesting a generality across biomes that has not been described elsewhere.

    

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2. Differences in flowering time maintain species boundaries in a continental radiation of Viburnum

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1292  

   Spriggs, Elizabeth_L ; Schlutius, Caroline ; Eaton, Deren_A ; Park, Brian ; Sweeney, Patrick_W ; Edwards, Erika_J ; Donoghue, Michael_J ( May 2019 , American Journal of Botany)

   We take an integrative approach in assessing how introgression and Pleistocene climate fluctuations have shaped the diversification of the coreLentagoclade ofViburnum, a group of five interfertile species with broad areas of sympatry. We specifically tested whether flowering time plays a role in maintaining species isolation.

   RAD‐seq data for 103 individuals were used to infer the species relationships and the genetic structure within each species. Flowering times were compared among species on the basis of historical flowering dates documented by herbarium specimens.

   Within each species, we found a strong relationship between flowering date and latitude, such that southern populations flower earlier than northern ones. In areas of sympatry, the species flower in sequence rather than simultaneously, with flowering dates offset by ≥9 d for all species pairs. In two cases it appears that the offset in flowering times is an incidental consequence of adaptation to differing climates, but in the recently diverged sister speciesV. prunifoliumandV. rufidulum, we find evidence that reinforcement led to reproductive character displacement. Long‐term trends suggest that the two northern‐most species are flowering earlier in response to recent climate change.

   We argue that speciation in theLentagoclade has primarily occurred through ecological divergence of allopatric populations, but differences in flowering time were essential to maintain separation of incipient species when they came into secondary contact. This combination of factors may underlie diversification in many other plant clades.

    

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3. Climate, urbanization, and species traits interactively drive flowering duration

   https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15461  

   Li, Daijiang ; Barve, Narayani ; Brenskelle, Laura ; Earl, Kamala ; Barve, Vijay ; Belitz, Michael W. ; Doby, Joshua ; Hantak, Maggie M. ; Oswald, Jessica A. ; Stucky, Brian J. ; et al ( December 2020 , Global Change Biology)

   A wave of green leaves and multi‐colored flowers advances from low to high latitudes each spring. However, little is known about how flowering offset (i.e., ending of flowering) and duration of populations of the same species vary along environmental gradients. Understanding these patterns is critical for predicting the effects of future climate and land‐use change on plants, pollinators, and herbivores. Here, we investigated potential climatic and landscape drivers of flowering onset, offset, and duration of 52 plant species with varying key traits. We generated phenology estimates using >270,000 community‐science photographs and a novel presence‐only phenometric estimation method. We found longer flowering durations in warmer areas, which is more obvious for summer‐blooming species compared to spring‐bloomers driven by their strongly differing offset dynamics. We also found that higher human population density and higher annual precipitation are associated with delayed flowering offset and extended flowering duration. Finally, offset of woody perennials was more sensitive than herbaceous species to both climate and urbanization drivers. Empirical forecast models suggested that flowering durations will be longer in 2030 and 2050 under representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5, especially for summer‐blooming species. Our study provides critical insight into drivers of key flowering phenophases and confirms that Hopkins’ Bioclimatic Law also applies to flowering durations for summer‐blooming species and herbaceous spring‐blooming species.

    

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4. Herbarium Specimens May Provide Biased Flowering Phenology Estimates for Dioecious Species

   https://doi.org/10.1086/722294  

   Yang, Yong ; Heberling, J. Mason ; Primack, Richard B. ; Lee, Benjamin R. ( November 2022 , International Journal of Plant Sciences)
5. DEK domain‐containing proteins control flowering time in Arabidopsis

   https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17366  

   Zong, Wei ; Zhao, Bo ; Xi, Yanpeng ; Bordiya, Yogendra ; Mun, Hyungwon ; Cerda, Nicholas A. ; Kim, Dong‐Hwan ; Sung, Sibum ( May 2021 , New Phytologist)

   Evolutionarily conserved DEK domain‐containing proteins have been implicated in multiple chromatin‐related processes, mRNA splicing and transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes.

   Here, we show that two DEK proteins, DEK3 and DEK4, control the floral transition inArabidopsis. DEK3 and DEK4 directly associate with chromatin of related flowering repressors,FLOWERING LOCUS C(FLC), and its two homologs,MADS AFFECTING FLOWERING4(MAF4) andMAF5, to promote their expression.

   The binding of DEK3 and DEK4 to a histone octamerin vivoaffects histone modifications atFLC,MAF4andMAF5loci. In addition, DEK3 and DEK4 interact with RNA polymerase II and promote the association of RNA polymerase II withFLC,MAF4andMAF5chromatin to promote their expression.

   Our results show that DEK3 and DEK4 directly interact with chromatin to facilitate the transcription of key flowering repressors and thus prevent precocious flowering inArabidopsis.

    

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