Flower colour variation in native and non-native populations of Nicotiana glauca seen through the eyes of its pollinators

COSTA A.; MORÉ M.; SÉRSIC, AN.; COCUCCI AA.; DREWNIAK E.; IZQUIERDO J.; COETZEE A.; PAUW A.; TRAVESET A.; PAIARO V.

PLANT BIOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2023

1435-8603

● Flower colour is an important visual signal in plant–pollinator interactions and invasive29 plants displaying different ecological histories and pollination environments in native30 and non-native areas provides an opportunity to address the role of pollination31 scenarios shaping flower colours.32 ● We examined variation in corolla reflectance of the ornithophilous South American33 shrub Nicotiana glauca across native and non-native ranges with different pollination34 environments: hummingbirds in South America, sunbirds in South Africa and self-35 pollination with occasional visits of diurnal hawkmoths in Spain. Through visual36 modelling, we explored how pollinators present in the different areas would perceive37 and discriminate colour among and within regions.38 ● We found large variation in corolla UV-reflectance among regions with disparate39 pollination environments and large variation in reflectance at long wavelengths among40 populations within the native range. Flower colour variation in non-native regions was41 smaller than in the native area, and partially lay within the native range of variation.42 The sunbird-pollinated populations in South Africa showed smaller colour variation43 than the populations without pollinating birds in Spain. From the point of view of44 pollinators, flowers of the native range could be discriminated from those of the non-45 native environments, but those of the two invaded regions could not be discriminated46 from each other. Despite their differences in visual systems, both bird pollinators and47 diurnal hawkmoths would similarly perceive flower colour variations.48 ● Our study found possible evidence for random subsampling of flower colour during N.49 glauca invasion and a small role of pollination environments in driving spatial shifts in50 this attraction trait.