Flower clades and fruit clades: Trade-offs in color diversification across angiosperms
- Author(s)
- Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong, Leah Maier, Stacey D. Smith, Agnes S. Dellinger
- Abstract
Abstract Premise Flowers and fruits are two major phases of plant reproduction that often use colorful signals to attract animal mutualists. Fruits develop from the ovaries of flowers, and both organs use the same suites of pigments to create color. These developmental links and functional similarities led us to test for correlations in flower and fruit color lability across clades. Methods We selected 51 clades (2960 species) of animal-pollinated and animal-dispersed (i.e., fleshy-fruited) plants and scored flower and fruit color into eight discrete (human-perceived) categories for the same set of species in each clade. We used stochastic character mapping to estimate the number and rates of transitions among colors in flowers and fruits. Results The number of transitions in flower and fruit color was negatively correlated across clades (R2?=?0.41; P?
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research
- External organisation(s)
- University of Colorado, Boulder
- Journal
- American journal of botany
- Volume
- 113
- No. of pages
- 15
- ISSN
- 0002-9122
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.70146
- Publication date
- 2026
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 106008 Botany, 106042 Systematic botany, 106012 Evolutionary research
- Keywords
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/9a38debc-b57d-4602-b799-afd770bf9939