Flowers have evolved remarkable diversity in petal color, in large part
due to pollinator-mediated selection. This diversity arises from
specialized metabolic pathways that generate conspicuous pigments. Despite
the clear link between flower color and floral pigment production, studies
determining predictive relationships between pigmentation and petal color
are currently lacking. In this study, we analyze a dataset consisting of
hundreds of natural Penstemon hybrids that exhibit variation in flower
color, including blue, purple, pink, and red. For each individual hybrid,
we measured anthocyanin pigment content and petal spectral reflectance. We
found that floral pigment quantities are correlated with hue, chroma, and
brightness as calculated from petal spectral reflectance data: hue is
related to the relative amounts of delphinidin vs. pelargonidin
pigmentation, whereas brightness and chroma are correlated with the total
anthocyanin pigmentation. We used a partial least squares regression
approach to identify predictive relationships between pigment production
and petal reflectance. We find that pigment quantity data provide robust
predictions of petal reflectance, confirming a pervasive assumption that
differences in pigmentation should predictably influence flower color.
Moreover, we find that reflectance data enables accurate inferences of
pigment quantities, where the full reflectance spectra provide much more
accurate inference of pigment quantities than spectral attributes
(brightness, chroma, and hue). Our predictive framework provides readily
interpretable model coefficients relating spectral attributes of petal
reflectance to underlying pigment quantities. These relationships
represent key links between genetic changes affecting anthocyanin
production and ecological functions of petal coloration.
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Consistent shifts in pollinator-relevant floral coloration along Rocky Mountain elevation gradients
Abstract1. Floral colour is a fundamental signal that shapes plant–pollinator interactions. Despite theoretical reasons why floral colours might shift in representation along biotic and abiotic gradients, few studies have examined community-level shifts in colour, and even fewer significant patterns have been detected.2. We examined floral colour on six replicated transects spanning 1,300 m in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA. Along these transects, there is a hypothe-sized shift from bee-dominated to fly-dominated pollination with increasing eleva-tion. The reflectance of flowers of 110 forb and shrub species was measured using a spectrophotometer, and was used to estimate three components of colour (hue, saturation and brightness) in relevant pollinator visual spaces. Percent cover data were collected from 67 sites and used to obtain community-weighted mean (cwm) estimates of floral colour.3. We found strong patterns of elevational change in floral colour. Reflectancecwm of shorter wavelengths (UVB through human blue, 300–500 nm) generally de-creased linearly with elevation, while reflectancecwm of longer wavelengths (human green through red, 500–700 nm) showed hump-shaped patterns with highest reflectance at intermediate elevations. With respect to pollinators, satura-tioncwm increased significantly with elevation in both bee and fly visual spaces, while brightness contrastcwm showed a hump-shaped pattern in bee space and a decline with elevation in fly visual space. For hue, cover of species perceived as bee-blue declined with elevation, while cover of bee-UV-green species showed a hump-shaped pattern. In comparison, we detected no elevational shifts in floral hues as perceived by flies.4. Synthesis. Hue patterns are consistent with the hypothesis that bee pollinators have shaped the geography of floral colour. The roles of fly pollinators and of abi-otic drivers are more difficult to infer, although the drop in floral brightness at high elevations is consistent with predictions that low temperatures and more intense ultraviolet radiation should favour increased pigment concentrations there. Our results indicate that floral colour can be dynamic yet predictable across the land-scape, a pattern that provides opportunities to tease apart the ecological and evo-lutionary drivers of this important plant trait.
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- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10086348
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of ecology
- Volume:
- 106
- ISSN:
- 0022-0477
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1910-1924
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Different populations of plant species can adapt to their local pollinators and diverge in floral traits accordingly. Floral traits are subject to pollinator‐driven natural selection to enhance plant reproductive success. Studies on temperate plant systems have shown pollinator‐driven selection results in floral trait variation along elevational gradients, but studies in tropical systems are lacking. We analyzed floral traits and pollinator assemblages in the Neotropical bee‐pollinated taxon
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Taxon Leaf‐litter ants.
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
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