Evolution of flowers and their visitors
Quint Rusman, Institut für Systematische und Evolutionäre Botanik, Universität Zürich
In this talk, we will explore the diversity of flowers and their visitors. Flowers show incredible variation in size, shape, colour, and scent. Bright colours and enticing perfumes are used by flowers to attract equally diverse flower visitors, that while feeding on sweet nectar and starchy pollen pollinate the flowers and thereby help in the reproduction of plants. Hence, flower visitors play a major role in the evolution of flowers. As it has now become clear, plant evolution can occur much faster than the widespread image of a million-year-taking process. Plant populations can adapt to changing environmental conditions already within a dozen of generations. To explain the incredible diversity of flowers and their visitors, we need to connect rapid local adaption to long-term evolutionary patterns.