Pollinator and Flower Morphology Interact to Affect Pollen Receipt

AbstractPollinators are important drivers of floral variation and speciation in plants. Here we investigate the effects of functional trait matching on pollen receipt in two plant species, Tritoniopsis revoluta and Nerine humilis, each visited by long-proboscid nemestrinid flies and bees across their ranges. Using single visits by pollinators to flowers with increased variance in floral morphology, we construct performance surfaces based on pollen receipt. We find divergent pollen receipt surfaces mediated by functionally different pollinators, within and between plant populations. Our results illuminate the nuances of how plants adapt to increase reproductive output in multipollinator communities, in which pollinators vary in their effectiveness.