Wildfires let two flower shapes take turns winning
McCarren S, Pauw A, Anderson B.
Pollinators
If you've ever wondered why a burned hillside bounces back with a wild mix of flower shapes, this is the reason: fire resets the competition so that flowers built for pollinators and flowers built for self-reliance each get their turn to thrive.
In South Africa, a flower called Lapeirousia anceps comes in two forms: some plants have long tubes matched to long-tongued flies, others have short tubes. Scientists watched one population for 21 years through several wildfires and found that right after a fire, pollinating flies are abundant and long-tubed flowers make more seeds, but as the area grows back and flies become scarce, short-tubed flowers do better because they can pollinate themselves. The fire cycle basically creates two different windows of opportunity, letting both flower types stick around instead of one outcompeting the other.
Key Findings
Over a 21-year study spanning multiple fires, long-tubed plants and their fly pollinators were more abundant early in post-fire succession and produced more seeds during that phase.
Later in succession, short-tubed plants flowered more often and produced relatively more seeds, with self-pollination accounting for more of their seed set.
Selection pressure on corolla tube length shifted direction depending on pollinator visitation rates, which tracked the post-fire successional stage.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A South African flower with two different tube lengths survives by switching strategies after wildfires: long-tubed flowers win when pollinating flies are plentiful right after a burn, while short-tubed flowers that can self-pollinate take over as the habitat matures and flies become scarce.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Post-fire succession niches facilitate co-occurrence of divergent flower forms.
Pollinator-mediated floral divergence is common, but the ecological mechanisms allowing divergent forms to coexist are often unclear. In South Africa, Lapeirousia anceps corolla tube length coevolv...
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Lapeirousia anceps, also known as long kabong, is a species of geophyte in the genus Lapeirousia. It is native in the Cape provinces in South Africa.