title: Floral colour change as a potential signal to pollinators.
abstract: Colour change in flowers (with age and/or after pollination) is taxonomically widespread, has evolved repeatedly, and has a range of putative selective benefits linked to modifying pollinator behaviour; however, this phenomenon seems paradoxically uncommon. We explore this paradox by reviewing the empirical evidence and argue that the evolution and maintenance of floral colour change as a signal to modify pollinator behaviour require special ecological circumstances that will often not be met across a plant population for a sustained number of generations, which potentially explains the scarcity of this phenomenon. We discuss alternative explanations for floral colour change and potentially fruitful lines of future research.
authors.affiliation: School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TH, UK. Electronic address: gr41@st-andrews.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Graeme D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Ruxton
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Animal Ecology, Hauptstr. 1, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: H Martin
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Schaefer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003116:Color; D035264:Flowers / Q000502:physiology*; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism; D054817:Pollination / Q000502:physiology*