Some of the problems that limit the number of species in the Arctic might also contribute to creating new species.
Tag - reproductive isolation
Alun Salt
Floral chemistry reveals the basis of an orchid pollinator shift
A greater concentration of a compound present throughout the species allowed one morph to attract bee pollinators.
Erin Zimmerman
Not All Scarlet Pimpernels Arrange Their Sexual Organs the Same Way to Avoid Pollinating Themselves
When there are unsuitable partners around, Lysimachia arvensis, will alter its herkogamy to favour self pollination over outcrossing with the wrong flowers
Alex Assiry
How do plant hybrids aid invasions?
There’s a common belief that hybridization of plants can aid invasions through adaptive introgression. This is where a hybrid breeds with one of its parent species, so that the parent species eventually adopts a new...
Fi Gennu
A new biological species in the Mercurialis annua polyploid complex
In eastern Spain (and many other places if you look) you can find Mercurialis annua, a plant with a complicated sex life. A new paper by Wen-Juan Ma and colleagues examine two polyploid species that formed after...
Completing the hybridization triangle: the inheritance of genetic incompatibilities during homoploid hybrid speciation in ragworts (Senecio)
Hybridization is an important contributor to biodiversity and speciation, with approximately 25 % of all plant species and 10 % of all animal species estimated to have experienced hybridization during their evolution...
William Salter
A change in pollinator alone does not explain speciation
How do plant species diverge? The Grant-Stebbin model describes pollinator-driven speciation. The idea is that plants adapt their flowers to work with the mosr effective pollinators in an area. When there are different...
Unmasking cryptic biodiversity in polyploids
Up to one-quarter of flowering plant species may have escaped recognition due to processes such as autopolyploidy-whole genome duplication events where polyploids may be morphologically identical to their diploid...
Intrinsic post-zygotic barriers play a key role in maintaining species boundaries in Eucalyptus
Larcombe et al. present a 20-year assessment of reproductive isolation in a forest tree system. They show that intermediate inheritance of floral morphology results in the loss of strong mechanical barriers to zygote...
botanyone
Evolution of reproductive isolation in Dendrobium
Evolutionary changes in reproductive compatibility is an important process contributing to the high levels of species diversity in Dendrobium.
Floral volatiles in Ipomopsis hybrids
A study of potential scent mediation of prezygotic and postzygotic reproductive isolation in Ipomopsis aggregata and I. tenuituba.
Reproductive differentiation into sexual and apomictic cytotypes
Mechanisms enabling the maintenance of sexual and apomictic modes of seed formation in sympatry are poorly understood. Dobeš et al. study populations of Potentilla puberula representing various combinations of five...
Mechanism of pollinator specificity in Ficus
Pollinator specificity facilitates reproductive isolation among plants, and mechanisms that generate specificity influence species boundaries. Wang et al. use two varieties of an Asian fig tree, Ficus semicordata, that...
Sexual organ reciprocity in distylous primroses
The main morphological characteristic of heterostyly is the reciprocal placement of anthers and stigmas in two distinct floral morphs; however, the partitioning of reciprocity within and between closely related species...
