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?
Tag - Ranunculaceae
Alun Salt
Where does scent go when attraction doesn’t matter?
Scent matters. If you’re a flowering plant, scent is an important tool for attracting pollinators. It’s no surprise that botanists see it as a vital feature when studying pollination. But what happens when...
Fi Gennu
Can a cold snap put a stop to sex?
The alpine plant Ranunculus kuepferi can face spring frosts while growing reproductive organs. Does the cold explain why sometimes the plant doesn't bother with sex?
Robustness of floral organ numbers
Despite the contribution of phenotypic variation in floral morphologies to speciation, species diversity has been recognized by modal morphologies where variation is averaged out. Here Kitazawa and Fujimoto show a...
botanyone
Tinkering with transcription factor networks for developmental robustness of Ranunculales flowers
Species within the Ranunculales bear flowers of formidable variation; for example, one can find novel floral organs and loss of floral organs, zygomorphic and radially symmetric flowers, and variation in floral organ...
Pollinators and maintaining variation in flower colour
This study uses dual choice assays and experimental arrays of blue and white flowers to determine pollinators' preference for flower colour in Aquilegia.
AJ Cann