Explaining Floral Diversity

摘要

One of the main functions of flowers is to attract animals. It is therefore no wonder that humans are fascinated by flowers. Theophrastus discussed floral characters, Linnaeus based his classification of plants on floral form, and Darwin devoted several books and articles to the forms and functions of flowers. Even Goethe, in addition to his poetic and musical offerings, felt compelled to explain the origins of floral structures. It has traditionally been assumed that selection by pollination vectors, principally animals, has produced the myriad of shapes, colors, arrangements, and rewards that we now find across the angiosperm spectrum. Much of the study of floral biology through the first half of the 20th century focused on flower form and the pollinating agents considered to be the driving forces behind floral morphological diversity.