Aims Floral traits are frequently used in traditional plant systematics because of their assumed constancy. One potential reason for the apparent constancy of flower size is that effective pollen transfer between flowers depends on the accuracy of the physical fit between the flower and pollinator. Therefore, flowers are likely to be under stronger stabilizing selection for uniform size than ve...

Introduction The mating systems of plant species and their patterns of pollen flow and seed dispersal create a pattern in the distribution of genetic diversity which is referred to as spatial genetic structure (Wright 1946). Over time, that pattern may be modified by other influences such as natural selection. In studying the spatial genetic structures of plant species directly, we can infer th...

6 Trait selection has received considerable attention in the pursuit to understand niche-based community 7 assembly processes and to generate ecological predictions. To further advance the study of trait selection, 8 a conceptual statistical model is presented that outlines and discuss the possibilities of i) estimating the 9 effect of interspecific interactions on traits rather than just testi...

Higher level selection processes such as species selection are not generally predicted to overpower individual selection on character traits. Goldberg et al. provide a model derived from collected life history data and argue that species selection is maintaining self-incompatibility in the Solanaceae plant family. This model applies only on the level of the species, not representing the underly...

Selection exerted by herbivores is a major force driving the evolution of plant defensive characters such as leaf trichomes or secondary metabolites. However, plant defense expression is highly variable among populations and identifying the sources of this variation remains a major challenge. Plant populations are often distributed across broad geographic ranges and are exposed to different her...

Most studies on plant defenses against insect herbivores investigate direct and indirect plant defenses independently. However, these defenses are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Plant metabolites can be transmitted through the food chain and can also affect the herbivore’s natural enemies. A conflict may arise when a natural enemy is attracted to a plant that is suboptimal in terms of its ...

Plant resistance to herbivores involves physical and chemical plant traits that prevent or diminish damage by herbivores, and hence may promote coevolutionary arm-races between interacting species. Although Datura stramonium's concentration of tropane alkaloids is under selection by leaf beetles, it is not known whether chemical defense reduces seed predation by the specialist weevil, Trichobar...