Flowers are one of the most striking examples of diversity in nature, displaying myriad combinations of colours, patterns, shapes and scents.
Since they don’t need to attract pollinators, they have small, unassuming white flowers. Still, their petals are full of UV-absorbing flavonols. This suggests that there are reasons not related to pollination for these pigments to be present in the flowers of the thale cress.
Finally, we noticed that sunflower populations from drier climates had consistently larger UV bullseyes. One of the known functions of flavonol glycosides is to. Indeed, we found that ligules with large UV patterns lost water at a much slower rate than ligules with small UV patterns. This suggests that, at least in sunflowers, patterns of floral UV pigmentation have two functions: improving the attractiveness of flowers to pollinators, and helping sunflowers survive in drier environments by preserving water.So what does this teach us? For one, that evolution is thrifty, and if possible will use the same trait to achieve more than one adaptive goal.
Finally, our work, and other studies looking at plant diversity, can help in predicting how and to which extent plants will be able to cope with climate change, which is already altering the environments they are adapted to.
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