ArticleeLife2017
The diversity of floral temperature patterns, and their use by pollinators.
Article in eLife, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- Temperature-dependent pollinator-mediated selection on floral thermoregulation.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Bumblebees learn to use antennal and tarsal taste to predict the presence of nectar rewards in flowers.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Subtle ecophysiological divergences in a deceptive strategy to attract the same pollinators in two sympatric Arum.Annals of botany · 2025Article
- Environmental Sources of Possible Associated Pathogens and Contaminants of Stingless Bees in the Neotropics.Insects · 2025Review
- Building beauty: Understanding how hormone signaling regulates petal patterning and morphogenesis.The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2025Review
- Article
- Variations of floral temperature in changing weather conditions.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- The behavioural responses of bumblebeesRoyal Society open science · 2024Article
- Strawberry varieties differ in pollinator-relevant floral traits.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Flavonoids and anthocyanins in seagrasses: implications for climate change adaptation and resilience.Frontiers in plant science · 2024Review
- Article
- Eco-Evo-Devo of petal pigmentation patterning.Essays in biochemistry · 2022Article
- The Ability of Bumblebees Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae) to Detect Floral Humidity is Dependent Upon Environmental Humidity.Environmental entomology · 2022Article
- Flower sharing and pollinator health: a behavioural perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Article
- Bumblebees can detect floral humidity.The Journal of experimental biology · 2021Article
- Floral infrared emissivity estimates using simple tools.Plant methods · 2021Article
- Phylogenetic signal in floral temperature patterns.BMC research notes · 2021Article
- Multimodal interactions in insect navigation.Animal cognition · 2020Review
- Nocturnal pollination: an overlooked ecosystem service vulnerable to environmental change.Emerging topics in life sciences · 2020Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pollinating insects utilise various sensory cues to identify and learn rewarding flower species. One such cue is floral temperature, created by captured sunlight or plant thermogenesis. Bumblebees, honeybees and stingless bees can distinguish flowers based on differences in overall temperature between flowers. We report here that floral temperature often differs between different parts of the flower creating a temperature structure or pattern. Temperature patterns are common, with 55% of 118 plant species thermographed, showing within-flower temperature differences greater than the 2°C difference that bees are known to be able to detect. Using differential conditioning techniques, we show that bumblebees can distinguish artificial flowers differing in temperature patterns comparable to those seen in real flowers. Thus, bumblebees are able to perceive the shape of these within-flower temperature patterns. Floral temperature patterns may therefore represent a new floral cue that could assist pollinators in the recognition and learning of rewarding flowers.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.