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Red flowers differ in shades between pollination systems and across continents

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Floral colour is a primary signal in plant–pollinator interactions. The association between red flowers and bird pollination is well known, explained by the ‘bee avoidance’ and ‘bird attraction’ hypotheses. Nevertheless, the relative importance of these two hypotheses has rarely...

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Autores principales: Chen, Zhe, Niu, Yang, Liu, Chang-Qiu, Sun, Hang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7539362/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32478385
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaa103
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author Chen, Zhe
Niu, Yang
Liu, Chang-Qiu
Sun, Hang
author_facet Chen, Zhe
Niu, Yang
Liu, Chang-Qiu
Sun, Hang
author_sort Chen, Zhe
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Floral colour is a primary signal in plant–pollinator interactions. The association between red flowers and bird pollination is well known, explained by the ‘bee avoidance’ and ‘bird attraction’ hypotheses. Nevertheless, the relative importance of these two hypotheses has rarely been investigated on a large scale, even in terms of colour perception per se. METHODS: We collected reflectance spectra for 130 red flower species from different continents and ascertained their pollination systems. The spectra were analysed using colour vision models for bees and (three types of) birds, to estimate colour perception by these pollinators. The differences in colour conspicuousness (chromatic and achromatic contrast, purity) and in spectral properties between pollination systems and across continents were analysed. KEY RESULTS: Compared with other floral colours, red flowers are very conspicuous to birds and much less conspicuous to bees. The red flowers pollinated by bees and by birds are more conspicuous to their respective pollinators. Compared with the bird flowers in the Old World, the New World ones are less conspicuous to bees and may be more conspicuous not only to violet-sensitive but also to ultraviolet-sensitive birds. These differences can be explained by the different properties of the secondary reflectance peak (SP). SP intensity is higher in red flowers pollinated by bees than those pollinated by birds (especially New World bird flowers). A transition from high SP to low SP in red flowers can induce chromatic contrast changes, with a greater effect on reducing attraction to bees than enhancing attraction to birds. CONCLUSIONS: Shades of red flowers differ between pollination systems. Moreover, red bird flowers are more specialized in the New World than in the Old World. The evolution towards colour specialization is more likely to result in higher efficiency of bee avoidance than bird attraction
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spelling pubmed-75393622020-10-13 Red flowers differ in shades between pollination systems and across continents Chen, Zhe Niu, Yang Liu, Chang-Qiu Sun, Hang Ann Bot Original Articles BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Floral colour is a primary signal in plant–pollinator interactions. The association between red flowers and bird pollination is well known, explained by the ‘bee avoidance’ and ‘bird attraction’ hypotheses. Nevertheless, the relative importance of these two hypotheses has rarely been investigated on a large scale, even in terms of colour perception per se. METHODS: We collected reflectance spectra for 130 red flower species from different continents and ascertained their pollination systems. The spectra were analysed using colour vision models for bees and (three types of) birds, to estimate colour perception by these pollinators. The differences in colour conspicuousness (chromatic and achromatic contrast, purity) and in spectral properties between pollination systems and across continents were analysed. KEY RESULTS: Compared with other floral colours, red flowers are very conspicuous to birds and much less conspicuous to bees. The red flowers pollinated by bees and by birds are more conspicuous to their respective pollinators. Compared with the bird flowers in the Old World, the New World ones are less conspicuous to bees and may be more conspicuous not only to violet-sensitive but also to ultraviolet-sensitive birds. These differences can be explained by the different properties of the secondary reflectance peak (SP). SP intensity is higher in red flowers pollinated by bees than those pollinated by birds (especially New World bird flowers). A transition from high SP to low SP in red flowers can induce chromatic contrast changes, with a greater effect on reducing attraction to bees than enhancing attraction to birds. CONCLUSIONS: Shades of red flowers differ between pollination systems. Moreover, red bird flowers are more specialized in the New World than in the Old World. The evolution towards colour specialization is more likely to result in higher efficiency of bee avoidance than bird attraction Oxford University Press 2020-06-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7539362/ /pubmed/32478385 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaa103 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Chen, Zhe
Niu, Yang
Liu, Chang-Qiu
Sun, Hang
Red flowers differ in shades between pollination systems and across continents
title Red flowers differ in shades between pollination systems and across continents
title_full Red flowers differ in shades between pollination systems and across continents
title_fullStr Red flowers differ in shades between pollination systems and across continents
title_full_unstemmed Red flowers differ in shades between pollination systems and across continents
title_short Red flowers differ in shades between pollination systems and across continents
title_sort red flowers differ in shades between pollination systems and across continents
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7539362/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32478385
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaa103
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