Pollinators show flower colour preferences but flowers with similar colours do not attract similar pollinators
Author(s) -
Sara Reverté,
Javier Retana,
José M. Gómez,
Jordi Bosch
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
annals of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.567
H-Index - 176
eISSN - 1095-8290
pISSN - 0305-7364
DOI - 10.1093/aob/mcw103
Subject(s) - pollinator , biology , pollination , generalist and specialist species , ecology , context (archaeology) , pollen , habitat , paleontology
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.
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