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Skewed Flowering Distributions and Pollinator Attraction
Author(s) -
Thomson James D.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.2307/1937423
Subject(s) - pollinator , ecology , attraction , competition (biology) , biology , skewness , selection (genetic algorithm) , pollination , pollen , mathematics , statistics , linguistics , philosophy , artificial intelligence , computer science
The temporal distributions of flowering by animal—pollinated plant populations, flowering curves, can be viewed profitably as resource utilization functions. A conceptual model of plant competition for pollinators suggests that selection may favor asymmetrical, positively skewed curves, and that such skewness should be most evident in flowers which, at the initiation of flowering, are of a type unfamiliar to their pollinators. Both predictions are confirmed in an examination of 57 species of subalpine meadow plants from the Colorado Rocky Mountains.