Floral color change occurs in flowers in a wide range of angiosperm taxa that undergo a color change associated with their age, or after successful pollination. [3] [4] controversial images of lantana flower redirected into cruciferae family in legitimate type inflorescence of canopy elliptical flowering arrangement . It's scientific name is Ageypti moreii.
The first written record of the term floral color change was in 1877 when Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) forwarded a letter from his colleague, naturalist Fritz Müller (31 March 1821 – 21 May 1897) to the British multidisciplinary science journal, Nature . Müller documented the patterns and efficiency of pollination in relation to the floral color change that occurred in Lantana flowers found in Brazilian forests. It is now understood that floral color change has evolved independently several times and has maintained morphological and physiological differences across taxa. [5]
Although this phenomenon was first mentioned over 200 years ago, research on its biological relevance has only occurred within the last few decades. [6]
The three major pigments involved in floral color change are anthocyanins, carotenoids, and betalains. Color changes can occur from any of the following; an accumulation or loss of anthocyanins, accumulation or loss of carotenoids, or an accumulation of betalains. Floral color change may also be caused by an increase or decrease in pH causing a reddening/blueing of anthocyanins and co-pigments.
Floral color change can be inducible or non-inducible. Some flowers will change color at the same rate regardless of pollinator visitation, while others can be induced by pollen deposition on the stigma. However, inducible flowers will eventually change color due to senescence even without pollinator activity.
Depending on the species, floral color change can affect an entire flower or it can occur in localized parts. Previous research has found that moth-pollinated flowers are more likely to have whole flower color changes, while other insect-pollinated flowers are more likely to have localized color changes. [7]
While flowers typically wilt after pollination, many angiosperm taxa maintain their flowers even after their sexual viability has come to an end. During this time, flowers that have been successfully pollinated and have reduced rewards may undergo color changes, which act as a signal to their pollinators. Insect pollinators preferentially visit flowers that are sexually viable and have not undergone color change. [7] Pollinators will learn and discriminate against floral stages from these signals benefiting both parties by allowing insects to be guided to flowers that are rewarding, while the flowers receive pollination. [5] [7]
It has been shown that the size of the plant's floral display is important in relation to plant-pollinator interactions. Larger floral displays are more likely to be seen and visited by their pollinators than small inconspicuous floral displays. Several angiosperm species are known to increase their floral display without producing additional flowers. These species accomplish this by retaining the older, nonfunctional flowers that would often be abscised in other species to reduce the cost to the plant that comes from the carbohydrates needed and the water loss that occurs when maintaining these tissues. [6] [9]
However, when these flowers are retained on insect pollinated plants there are the potential benefits of enhanced reproductive success through increased pollen deposition on stigmas and export of pollen to fertilize the ovules of other plants. [9]
Senescence is one of the main causes of floral color change along with induction by pollination. While angiosperm taxa show variation in the time that it takes senescence to occur, the mechanism is typically associated with the biosynthesis of anthocyanins. Evening primrose in the genus Oenothera are a common example of flowers that undergo color changes due to senescence. Oenothera will bloom in the evening and appear to be white or yellow, and by morning they fade to pink or orange. [10]
Floral color change can also be a result of an increase or decrease in pH. Hydrangea is a model genus for this particular chemical change in flowers. Floral pigments in Hydrangea are affected by the presence of aluminum ions in the soil, causing changes in flower color from red, pink, blue, light purple or dark purple. [4]
There has been one non-chemical example found within Caesalpinioideae, a single sub-family of Fabaceae where the folding of petals cause changes to the color patterns of the flowers. [7]
Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-notfamily, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees, and herbs in 146 to 156 genera with a worldwide distribution.
Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of modified leaves called sepals, that collectively form the calyx and lie just beneath the corolla. The calyx and the corolla together make up the perianth, the non-reproductive portion of a flower. When the petals and sepals of a flower are difficult to distinguish, they are collectively called tepals. Examples of plants in which the term tepal is appropriate include genera such as Aloe and Tulipa. Conversely, genera such as Rosa and Phaseolus have well-distinguished sepals and petals. When the undifferentiated tepals resemble petals, they are referred to as "petaloid", as in petaloid monocots, orders of monocots with brightly colored tepals. Since they include Liliales, an alternative name is lilioid monocots.
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, for example beetles or butterflies; birds, and bats; water; wind; and even plants themselves. Pollinating animals travel from plant to plant carrying pollen on their bodies in a vital interaction that allows the transfer of genetic material critical to the reproductive system of most flowering plants. When self-pollination occurs within a closed flower. Pollination often occurs within a species. When pollination occurs between species, it can produce hybrid offspring in nature and in plant breeding work.
Chromoplasts are plastids, heterogeneous organelles responsible for pigment synthesis and storage in specific photosynthetic eukaryotes. It is thought that like all other plastids including chloroplasts and leucoplasts they are descended from symbiotic prokaryotes.
Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants.
The Onagraceae are a family of flowering plants known as the willowherb family or evening primrose family. They include about 650 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees in 17 genera. The family is widespread, occurring on every continent from boreal to tropical regions.
Sequential hermaphroditism is one of the two types of hermaphroditism, the other type being simultaneous hermaphroditism. It occurs when the organism's sex changes at some point in its life. A sequential hermaphrodite produces eggs and sperm at different stages in life. Sequential hermaphroditism occurs in many fish, gastropods, and plants. Species that can undergo these changes do so as a normal event within their reproductive cycle, usually cued by either social structure or the achievement of a certain age or size. In some species of fish, sequential hermaphroditism is much more common than simultaneous hermaphroditism.
Entomophily or insect pollination is a form of pollination whereby pollen of plants, especially but not only of flowering plants, is distributed by insects. Flowers pollinated by insects typically advertise themselves with bright colours, sometimes with conspicuous patterns leading to rewards of pollen and nectar; they may also have an attractive scent which in some cases mimics insect pheromones. Insect pollinators such as bees have adaptations for their role, such as lapping or sucking mouthparts to take in nectar, and in some species also pollen baskets on their hind legs. This required the coevolution of insects and flowering plants in the development of pollination behaviour by the insects and pollination mechanisms by the flowers, benefiting both groups. Both the size and the density of a population are known to affect pollination and subsequent reproductive performance.
Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists, which in turn provide herbivore protection. Common nectar-consuming pollinators include mosquitoes, hoverflies, wasps, bees, butterflies and moths, hummingbirds, honeyeaters and bats. Nectar plays a crucial role in the foraging economics and evolution of nectar-eating species; for example, nectar foraging behavior is largely responsible for the divergent evolution of the African honey bee, A. m. scutellata and the western honey bee.
A flower, also known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants. Flowers consist of a combination of vegetative organs – sepals that enclose and protect the developing flower, petals that attract pollinators, and reproductive organs that produce gametophytes, which in flowering plants produce gametes. The male gametophytes, which produce sperm, are enclosed within pollen grains produced in the anthers. The female gametophytes are contained within the ovules produced in the carpels.
Ornithophily or bird pollination is the pollination of flowering plants by birds. This sometimes coevolutionary association is derived from insect pollination (entomophily) and is particularly well developed in some parts of the world, especially in the tropics, Southern Africa, and on some island chains. The association involves several distinctive plant adaptations forming a "pollination syndrome". The plants typically have colourful, often red, flowers with long tubular structures holding ample nectar and orientations of the stamen and stigma that ensure contact with the pollinator. Birds involved in ornithophily tend to be specialist nectarivores with brushy tongues and long bills, that are either capable of hovering flight or light enough to perch on the flower structures.
Biological pigments, also known simply as pigments or biochromes, are substances produced by living organisms that have a color resulting from selective color absorption. Biological pigments include plant pigments and flower pigments. Many biological structures, such as skin, eyes, feathers, fur and hair contain pigments such as melanin in specialized cells called chromatophores. In some species, pigments accrue over very long periods during an individual's lifespan.
Betalains are a class of red and yellow tyrosine-derived pigments found in plants of the order Caryophyllales, where they replace anthocyanin pigments. Betalains also occur in some higher order fungi. They are most often noticeable in the petals of flowers, but may color the fruits, leaves, stems, and roots of plants that contain them. They include pigments such as those found in beets.
Thomisus onustus is a crab spider belonging to the genus Thomisus. These spiders are found across Europe, North Africa, and parts of the Middle East and Asia. T. onustus reside in flowers in lowland vegetation. Females are distinguished by their larger size and ability to change color between white, yellow, and pink as a means of matching flower color. This cryptic mimicry allows them to both evade predators and enhance insect prey capture abilities. Males are smaller, more slender, and drab in coloration, usually green or brown. T. onustus is also distinguished from other relatives by its distinct life cycle patterns in which spiderlings emerge in either late summer or early spring. Furthermore, T. onustus have developed a mutualistic relationship with host plants where spiders feed on and/or deter harmful florivores while benefiting from the plant's supply of pollen and nectar, which T. onustus spiders are able to use as food sources, especially during periods of low insect prey abundance.
In evolutionary biology, mimicry in plants is where a plant organism evolves to resemble another organism physically or chemically, increasing the mimic's Darwinian fitness. Mimicry in plants has been studied far less than mimicry in animals, with fewer documented cases and peer-reviewed studies. However, it may provide protection against herbivory, or may deceptively encourage mutualists, like pollinators, to provide a service without offering a reward in return.
The monocots are one of the two major groups of flowering plants, the other being the dicots. In order to reproduce they utilize various strategies such as employing forms of asexual reproduction, restricting which individuals they are sexually compatible with, or influencing how they are pollinated. Nearly all reproductive strategies that evolved in the dicots have independently evolved in monocots as well. Despite these similarities and their close relatedness, monocots and dicots have distinct traits in their reproductive biologies.
Floral Isolation is a form of reproductive isolation found in angiosperms. Reproductive isolation is the process of species evolving mechanisms to prevent reproduction with other species. In plants, this is accomplished through the manipulation of the pollinator’s behavior or through morphological characteristics of flowers that favor intraspecific pollen transfer. Preventing interbreeding prevents hybridization and gene flow between the species (introgression), and consequently protects genetic integrity of the species. Reproductive isolation occurs in many organisms, and floral isolation is one form present in plants. Floral isolation occurs prior to pollination, and is divided into two types of isolation: morphological isolation and ethological isolation. Floral isolation was championed by Verne Grant in the 1900s as an important mechanism of reproductive isolation in plants.
Pollinator-mediated selection is an evolutionary process occurring in flowering plants, in which the foraging behavior of pollinators differentially selects for certain floral traits. Flowering plant are a diverse group of plants that produce seeds. Their seeds differ from those of gymnosperms in that they are enclosed within a fruit. These plants display a wide range of diversity when it comes to the phenotypic characteristics of their flowers, which attracts a variety of pollinators that participate in biotic interactions with the plant. Since many plants rely on pollen vectors, their interactions with them influence floral traits and also favor efficiency since many vectors are searching for floral rewards like pollen and nectar. Examples of pollinator-mediated selected traits could be those involving the size, shape, color and odor of flowers, corolla tube length and width, size of inflorescence, floral rewards and amount, nectar guides, and phenology. Since these types of traits are likely to be involved in attracting pollinators, they may very well be the result of selection by the pollinators themselves.
Pollen theft, also known as pollen robbery or floral larceny, occurs when an animal actively eats or collects pollen from a plant species but provides little or no pollination in return. Pollen theft was named as a concept at least as early as the 1980, and examples have been documented well before that. For example, native honey bees were documented 'stealing' large amounts of pollen from the large, bat-pollinated flowers of Parkia clappertoniana in Ghana in the 1950s. Nevertheless, pollen theft has typically received far less research attention than nectar robbing, despite the more direct consequences on plant reproduction.
In botany, floral morphology is the study of the diversity of forms and structures presented by the flower, which, by definition, is a branch of limited growth that bears the modified leaves responsible for reproduction and protection of the gametes, called floral pieces.