Size Matters: Understanding the Conflict Faced by Large Flowers in Mediterranean Environments
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2016
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Springer
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Abstract
Flower size is a key trait in the reproductive ecology of animal-pollinated plants. However, pollinator-mediated selection does not always modulate this trait and environmental conditions and/or antagonist interactions may favor smaller flowers. We evaluate the occurrence of a large-flowered family in a hot and dry Mediterranean environment, mediated by a cost-benefit balance and a male–female conflict. Large flowers have sizeable benefits in terms of pollination and reproductive success and pollinators mediate selection through male function, but female fitness is context-dependent. High floral production and maintenance costs and florivore incidence in large flowers limit female function, which counteracts pollinator-mediated selection. Large flowers are highly costly in the Mediterranean and flower size is mediated by a sexual conflict between the benefits of male function and the costs of the female one. However, a short floral longevity, occasional pollen limitation and selection through maleness keep the existence of large flowers in these environments.
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Acknowledgments. We thank A. Escudero, J.M. Iriondo, J. Arroyo, P. García-Fayos, A. Sánchez, A. Traveset, S. Karrenberg, J. Ågren, N. Sletvold, A.L. Parachnowitsch, C.M. Caruso, J. Herrera, J. Ollerton, J.F. Scheepens, J. Těšitel and M.A. Rodríguez-Gironés for the comments provided during the first versions of the manuscript. We are also grateful to Y. Valiñani and E. Galisteo for lab assistance and to J.P. González-Varo, J. Güemes, E. Carrió, E. Triano and R. Torices for collecting flower buds for analyses of floral production costs. J. Herrera kindly provided some data of flower size for several Mediterranean species.