FLORAL COST VS. FLORAL DISPLAY: INSIGHTS FROM THE MEGADIVERSE MYRTALES SUGGEST THAT ENERGETICALLY EXPENSIVE FLORAL PARTS ARE LESS PHYLOGENETICALLY CONSTRAINED

摘要

Premise of the study: Floral display describes the effect of flower size combined with the number of flowers per inflorescence. There is strong evidence that a floral-display trade-off operates under energetic constraint, with few-flowered inflorescences likely to have larger flowers than many-flowered inflorescences. Flower size can be estimated by different variables; thus, we propose that the variable for flower size that is most highly (negatively) correlated with the number of flowers per inflorescence will also be the best estimate of floral cost. Ranking the correlation with the phylogenetic signal of the variable can provide additional insight into the evolution of floral display.