Flower colour adaptation in a mimetic orchid
Open Access
- 1 February 2012
- journal article
- Published by The Royal Society in Proceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences
- Vol. 279 (1737), 2309-2313
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.2375
Abstract
Although the tremendous variability in floral colour among angiosperms is often attributed to divergent selection by pollinators, it is usually difficult to preclude the possibility that floral colour shifts were driven by non-pollinator processes. Here, we examine the adaptive significance of flower colour in Disa ferruginea, a non-rewarding orchid that is thought to attract its butterfly pollinator by mimicking the flowers of sympatric nectar-producing species. Disa ferruginea has red flowers in the western part of its range and orange flowers in the eastern part—a colour shift that we hypothesized to be the outcome of selection for resemblance to different local nectar-producing plants. Using reciprocal translocations of red and orange phenotypes as well as arrays of artificial flowers, we found that the butterfly Aeropetes tulbaghia, the only pollinator of the orchid, preferred both the red phenotype and red artificial flowers in the west where its main nectar plant also has red flowers, and both the orange phenotype and orange artificial flowers in the east, where its main nectar plant has orange flowers. This phenotype by environment interaction demonstrates that the flower colour shift in D. ferruginea is adaptive and driven by local colour preference in its pollinator.Keywords
This publication has 43 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Role of Animal Pollination in Plant Speciation: Integrating Ecology, Geography, and GeneticsAnnual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 2009
- FLIES AND FLOWERS IN DARWIN'S RACEEvolution, 2009
- How to look like a mallow: evidence of floral mimicry between Turneraceae and MalvaceaeProceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2007
- Ancestral reconstruction of flower morphology and pollination systems in Schizanthus (Solanaceae)American Journal of Botany, 2006
- Genetic constraints on floral evolution: a review and evaluation of patternsHeredity, 2006
- The effects of floral mimics and models on each others' fitnessProceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2006
- Exploitation of a specialized mutualism by a deceptive orchidAmerican Journal of Botany, 2005
- Experimental and phylogenetic evidence for floral mimicry in a guild of fly-pollinated plantsBiological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2003
- Color vision in honeybeesNeuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 1992
- Pollinator Adaptation to Oil-Secreting Flowers--Rediviva and DiasciaEvolution, 1990