Flower size evolution in the Southwest Pacific.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Despite accelerating interest in island evolution, the general evolutionary trajectories of island flowers remain poorly understood. In particular the island rule, which posits that small organisms become larger and large organisms become smaller after island colonization, while tested for various plant traits, has never been tested for flower size. Here, we provide the first test of the island rule for flower size for animal- and wind-pollinated flowers, and the first evidence for generalized in situ evolution of flower size on islands.

Methods

Focusing on ten archipelagos in the Southwest Pacific, we amassed a dataset comprising 129 independent colonization events, by pairing each island endemic to its closest mainland relative. We then tested for the i

SUBMITTER: Ciarle R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12445859 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature