Catching on to concatenation: evidence for pre‐pollination intra‐sexual selection in plants

[from introduction] Darwin (1871) proposed the mechanism of sexual selection to explain the extreme traits, secondary sex characters, seen primarily in male animals for either display or competition. These elaborate traits for attracting members of the opposite sex or competing for access to mates, inter- and intra-sexual selection, respectively, would increase the mating success of individuals but may reduce individual survival. Sexual selection has traditionally been associated with motile, dioecious animals that have well-developed sensory abilities and has long been viewed as absent as a mode of selection in plants (Grant, 1995). However, since the 1980s, several workers have argued that sexual selection is applicable to plants and should be considered as a factor in floral evolution (Skogsmyr & Lankinen, 2002). Opponents such as Grant (1995) point to incompatibility with Darwin’s usage, hermaphroditism, the absence of obvious secondary sex characters and the apparent absence of female choice in plants (Skogsmyr & Lankinen, 2002; Moore & Pannell, 2011). Proponents, however, argue that historical definitions should be expanded to explain modern evidence and that sexual selection can, in principle, occur in hermaphrodites and hence play a role in the evolution of floral traits. The latter view is supported by a recent study by Cocucci et al. (this issue of New Phytologist, pp. 280–286) which demonstrates intra-sexual selection in plants via direct male–male competition between the pollinaria of milkweeds for optimal attachment sites on pollinators to ensure subsequent pollinium deposition. This is the first example of male–male competition resulting in secondary sex characters in hermaphrodite plants, highlighting the possibility of overlooked mechanisms of sexual selection in plants