Across the plant kingdom, there is an extraordinary diversity of flower forms, many of which are related to variation in the morphology and arrangement of reproductive organs. To prevent self-pollination, plants have...
The flowers of Aquilegia eximia, the serpentine columbine, face downward, but the hummingbirds that pollinate it prefer horizontal flowers, so why do the flowers face the wrong way?
The genetic diversity and structure of plant populations are determined by the interaction of gene flow, genetic drift and natural selection. These processes are to some extent dependent on the mating system of plants...
Many African genera of the Amaranthaceae exhibit unique inflorescences that include sterile flowers modified to hooks or spines. Considering that the abundance of large terrestrial herbivores increased on the African...
Camptotheca is endemic to China and there are limited data about the breeding system and morphogenesis of the flowers. Camptotheca is thought to be related to Nyssa and Davidia in Nyssaceae, which has sometimes been...
The characteristics of the breeding systems of woody bamboo species are not well defined, although this knowledge is important for research on the genetic improvement and conservation of bamboo forests. A recent study...
Investigating floral morphology in the order Geraniales, Jeiter et al. present data to demonstrate that even the most disparate floral morphologies are derived from a common origin, sharing a basic pentamerous and...
Competition for pollination can occur between sympatric plant species sharing pollinators, but can be minimized if each plant species places pollen on different areas of the pollinator’s body. Hitherto there has...
Plant species that share pollinators are potentially subject to non-adaptive interspecific pollen transfer, resulting in reduced reproductive success. Mechanisms that increase pollination efficiency between conspecific...
Populations of introduced species in their new environments are expected to differ from native populations, due to processes such as genetic drift, founder effects, and local adaptation, which can often result in rapid...
Pollinator-driven speciation week continues, with Floral adaptation to local pollinator guilds in a terrestrial orchid, a paper by Sun, Gross and Schiestl. The star is the orchid Gymnadenia odoratissima, and orchid...