Geographic variation in flower color: spectral composition versus perception of pollinators

Abstract

Geographic variation of flower color can be the result of selective processes mediated by pollinators. Changes in flower color can steer visual attention of pollinators in different ways, thus influencing enhancing plants pollination success. Despite this is a widespread belief in pollination biology, there is no study that analyse at a geographical scale both, the spectral patterns of the light reflected by flowers across the entire wavelength range, and the colour space patterns obtained from pollinators perception of the reflected colours (adaptive component).