Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

The evolution of empty flowers revisited.

Ann Smithson1, Luc D B Gigord

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, University of Exeter, Hatherly Laboratories, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter EX4 4PS, United Kingdom. a.smithson@exeter.ac.uk

The American Naturalist
|June 5, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Plants evolving without pollinator rewards face low reproductive success. Pollinators adapt foraging strategies, like avoiding "empty morphs" or switching species, to minimize wasted visits as these rewardless plants increase.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Phylotranscriptomic analysis and genome evolution of the Cypripedioideae (Orchidaceae).

American journal of botany·2018
Same author

NEGATIVE FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION BY POLLINATORS ON ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS WITHOUT REWARDS.

Evolution; international journal of organic evolution·2017
Same author

The butterfly plant arms-race escalated by gene and genome duplications.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2015
Same author

Elucidating steroid alkaloid biosynthesis in Veratrum californicum: production of verazine in Sf9 cells.

The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology·2015
Same author

Development and testing of new gene-homologous EST-SSRs for Eucalyptus gomphocephala (Myrtaceae).

Applications in plant sciences·2014
Same author

On the relevance of molecular tools for taxonomic revision in Malvales, Malvaceae s.l., and Dombeyoideae.

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)·2014

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Plant-pollinator interactions
  • Behavioral ecology

Background:

  • The evolution of plants lacking pollinator rewards presents an evolutionary puzzle due to reduced pollinator visits and reproductive success.
  • Understanding the dynamics of
  • empty morphs
  • within plant populations is crucial for predicting their evolutionary trajectory.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To model and predict the evolutionary dynamics of plants that offer no rewards to pollinators.
  • To investigate pollinator foraging strategies for avoiding rewardless plant morphs.

Main Methods:

  • Mathematical modeling of pollinator foraging strategies.
  • Experimental testing using artificial inflorescences and bumblebee pollinators.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Pollinators employ varied strategies to avoid wasting time on empty inflorescences.
  • Direct discrimination against empty morphs becomes optimal as their frequency increases.
  • Pollinators switched to alternative species when empty morph frequency rose.

Conclusions:

  • Empty morphs face visitation disadvantages even at low frequencies.
  • Differences in outcrossing rates or male function may facilitate the spread of rewardless plants.