Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Colour is one of the main floral traits used by pollinators to locate flowers. Although pollinators show innate colour preferences, the view that the colour of a flower may be considered an important predictor of its main pollinators is highly controversial because flower choice is highly context-dependent, and initial innate preferences may be overridden by subsequent associative learning. Our objective is to establish whether there is a relationship between flower colour and pollinator composition in natural communities. METHODS: We measured the flower reflectance spectrum and pollinator composition in four plant communities (85 plant species represented by 109 populations, and 32 305 plant-pollinator interactions in total). Pollinators were divided into six taxonomic groups: bees, ants, wasps, coleopterans, dipterans and lepidopterans. KEY RESULTS: We found consistent associations between pollinator groups and certain colours. These associations matched innate preferences experimentally established for several pollinators and predictions of the pollination syndrome theory. However, flowers with similar colours did not attract similar pollinator assemblages. CONCLUSIONS: The explanation for this paradoxical result is that most flower species are pollination generalists. We conclude that although pollinator colour preferences seem to condition plant-pollinator interactions, the selective force behind these preferences has not been strong enough to mediate the appearance and maintenance of tight colour-based plant-pollinator associations.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Pollinator groups were consistently associated with certain flower colours.
- Interactor
- pollinator groupse0pollinator
- Outcome
- associations between pollinator groups and certain colourse0
Not reportedTaxonDirection
Verbatim
e0“We found consistent associations between pollinator groups and certain colours.”
Claim · model-written summary
Flowers with similar colours did not attract similar pollinator assemblages.
Verbatim
e0“However, flowers with similar colours did not attract similar pollinator assemblages.”
Claim · model-written summary
Most flower species were interpreted as pollination generalists.
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e0“most flower species are pollination generalists.”
Claim · model-written summary
Pollinator colour preferences seem to condition plant-pollinator interactions.
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e0“pollinator colour preferences seem to condition plant-pollinator interactions”
Claim · model-written summary
Pollinator preferences were interpreted as insufficient to maintain tight colour-based plant-pollinator associations.
- Taxon
- plante0
- Outcome
- tight colour-based plant-pollinator associationse0
- Qualifier
- selective force behind these preferencese0
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e0“the selective force behind these preferences has not been strong enough to mediate the appearance and maintenance of tight colour-based plant-pollinator associations.”