High floral disparity without pollinator shifts in buzz‐bee‐pollinated Melastomataceae

• DOI: 10.1111/nph.19735
• Publication Date: 2024-04-18T06:40:35Z
• Authors: Constantin Kopper; Jürg Schönenberger; Agnes S. Dellinger
• Keywords: Melastomataceae; Marketing buzz; Open pollination

Summary Shifts among functional pollinator groups are commonly regarded as sources of floral morphological diversity (disparity) through the formation distinct pollination syndromes. While syndromes may be used for predicting pollinators, their predictive accuracy remains debated, and they rarely to test whether disparity is indeed associated with shifts. We apply classification models trained validated on 44 traits across 252 species empirical observations then use predict pollinators 159 lacking observations. In addition, we employ multivariate statistics phylogenetic comparative analyses shifts main source in Melastomataceae. find strong support four well‐differentiated (‘buzz‐bee’, ‘nectar‐foraging vertebrate’, ‘food‐body‐foraging ‘generalist’). add significantly disparity, that most species‐rich ‘buzz‐bee’ syndrome disparate, indicating high evolve without Also, relatively species‐poor clades geographic areas contributed substantially total disparity. Finally, our results show machine‐learning approaches a powerful tool evaluating concept well where missing.