Floral phenology of an Andean bellflower and pollination by buff-tailed sicklebill hummingbird.

ABSTRACT: The Andean bellflowers comprise an explosive radiation correlated with shifts to specialized pollination. One diverse clade has evolved with extremely curved floral tubes and is predicted to be pollinated exclusively by one of two parapatric species of sicklebill hummingbirds (Eutoxeres). In this study, we focused on the floral biology of Centropogon granulosus, a bellflower thought to be specialized for pollination by Eutoxeres condamini, in a montane cloud forest site in southeastern Peru. Using camera traps and a pollination exclusion experiment, we documented E. condamini as the sole pollinator of C. granulosus. Visitation by E. condamini was necessary for fruit development. Flowering rates were unequivocally linear and con

SUBMITTER: Boehm MMA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9168340 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature