NEWS CATEGORIES:

NEWS ARCHIVE >>
SOFTPEDIA REVIEWS >>

Home / News / Science / Nature

Nature

The Monkeyflower Has Two Types of Flower for Two Types of Pollinators The human preference for the red one boosted hummingbirds population	By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor 9th of October 2006, 14:09 GMT Adjust text size:


The monkeyflowers (Mimulus guttatus) is a plant species that presents two color variants for their flowers: red or yellow. Recently, biologists at the University of California, San Diego, have discovered that the flower's color is matched to two different pollinators that the plant employs. The red form, common along the coast, is preferred by hummingbirds, while yellow monkeyflowers, found east of I-15, are hawkmoths' favorite. The recent increase in San Diego's hummingbird population seems to be fueled by the growth of suburban developments and gardens, favor the red over the yellow variety. "Hummingbirds are now three times as dense inland as they were on the coast 50 years ago," said Joshua Kohn, an associate professor of biology at UCSD, who conducted the study with Matthew Streisfeld, now a researcher at Duke University. "This increase in hummingbirds may be tipping the balance of selection from favoring yellow to favoring red flowers." "The shift between the red- and yellow-flowered forms can be seen along any road running from the coast inland in San Diego county and is one of the sharpest natural patterns residents can view while driving in the late spring," he adds. "We have shown that this shift is very likely due to selection by different types of pollinators. The abundance of at least one of these pollinators, hummingbirds, has recently increased dramatically and may well favor an eastern expansion of the red-flowered form." "The striking geographic pattern of flower color-where we never see a red-flowered plant in the east or a yellow-flowered plant along the coast-speaks wonders of the power of natural selection to maintain these differences," said Streisfeld.

Rating:

Good (3.1/5)

6 vote(s) so far

Read by 0 user(s) | Add comment | Link to this article

Subscribe to news |

Print article |

Send to friend

© Copyright 2001-2008 Softpedia
Contact:

SEARCH THE NEWS ARCHIVE :

Today's News | Yesterday's News | News Archive

MORE RELATED ARTICLES:

Evolution on Islands

Voles' Odd Genetics

Wild Bees Enhance the Productivity of Honeybees

User opinions:

No user comments yet.

Be the first to express your opinion using the form below!

Share your opinion:

SUBMIT PROGRAM \| ADVERTISE \| GET HELP \| SEND US FEEDBACK \| RSS FEEDS \| ENTER NEWS SITE \| ENGLISH BOARD \| ROMANIAN FORUM
© 2001 - 2008 Softpedia. All rights reserved. Softpedia™ and the Softpedia™ logo are registered trademarks of SoftNews NET SRL.	Copyright Information \| Privacy Policy \| Terms of Use \| Update your software \| Archive