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Convergence, competition, and mimicry in a temperate community of hummingbird-pollinated flowers

Publication Name Ecology
Data Source Ecology
Data Type Publication
Volume 60
Journal Number 5
Publication Year 1972
Publication Place
Publisher
Pagination pp. 1022-1035
ISBN/ISSN
A. Kodric-Brown

We studied the pollination ecology of nine species of red, tubular flowers which bloom together in different combinations in the White Mountains of Arizona, USA. All species were strikingly convergent in floral color, size, and shape. Hummingbirds, the primary pollinators, usually did not visit flower species selectively, and individual birds often simultaneously carried four or more species of pollen. Flowers may have competed interspecifically for these shared pollinators, but competition was reduced because character displacement in orientation of anthers and stigma resulted in some species using different parts of the bird to transport their pollen. Most flower species secreted nectar at similar rates, particularly when the bloomed together in mixed stands. A population of Lobelia cardinalis secreted no nectar; it attracted hummingbirds by mimicing more abundant, nectar-producing species. This temperate flower community, which resembles some associations of convergent Mullerian and Batesian mimics, appear to have evolved its characteristics convergent structure because the advantages of using similar signals and rewards to share the same hummingbird pollinators outweigh the advantages of diverging to reduce interspecific competition.

Link
coevolution
coexistence
community
competition
convergence
flowers
hummingbirds
mimicry
nectar
pollination