ArticleAnnals of botany2016
Pollinators show flower colour preferences but flowers with similar colours do not attract similar pollinators.
Article in Annals of botany, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed.
- Colour preference and foraging constancy in the Asian giant honeybee Apis dorsata.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Leveraging local species data, a global database, and an occupancy model to explore bee-plant interactions.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2026Article
- A hierarchical abscission program regulates reproductive allocation inHorticulture research · 2026Article
- Microbiota and horizontal microbial transmission dynamics associated with bramble (Rubus spp.) flowers.Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- Integrating multi-omics and epiphytic microbial communities to decipher the spatiotemporal dynamics of flower color dynamic regulation inFrontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- A mosaic of colors: The influence of biotic and abiotic factors shaping flower color diversity across a tropical mountain ecosystem.American journal of botany · 2026Article
- Heat drastically alters floral color and pigment composition without affecting flower conspicuousness.American journal of botany · 2026Article
- The magnet species effect of two-leaf squill (Frontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Parasite hideouts: Preserving native cavity-nesting Hymenoptera through pollinator hotel management.PloS one · 2026Article
- Diversity and ecological functions of anthocyanins.BMC plant biology · 2025Review
- Blooming Urban Table: Flower Resources for Butterflies in Small Wastelands of a Large European City.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Floral Color and Family Drive Contrasting Plant-Pollinator Responses to Nutrient Enrichment.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Biodiversity-Friendly Management in Olive Groves Supports Pollinator Conservation in a Mediterranean Terraced Landscape.Insects · 2025Article
- Dominance of non-wetland-dependent pollinators in a plant community in a small natural wetland in Shimane, Japan.Journal of plant research · 2024Article
- Secretory Tissues and Volatile Components of Disc Florets in Several WildPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- High variability in the attractiveness of municipally-planted decorative plants to insects.PeerJ · 2024Article
- The Flower Colour Influences Spontaneous Nectaring in Butterflies: a Case Study with Twenty Subtropical Butterflies.Neotropical entomology · 2023Article
- Influence of sexual dimorphism and dichromatism on reproductive success in a rare native cactus.Oecologia · 2023Article
- Global distribution and evolutionary transitions of floral symmetry in angiosperms.Science advances · 2023Article
- Pollination mechanism inAoB PLANTS · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsColour 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.
methodsWe 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
resultsWe 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.
conclusionsThe 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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