Pollination Syndromes—The Evidence
The concept of the pollination syndrome has underlain much of floral biology for many years. This chapter assesses the usefulness of the concept in understanding flowers and flowering. It begins by considering why and how the pollination syndrome concept has become so entrenched in the literature on flowering, and then examines whether the key assumptions that underlie it are met. Finally, it assesses the experimental evidence that pollination syndromes do exist, and the experimental evidence which shows them to be false — those cases where the major pollinator in the native habitat is not that which the flower's morphology would lead you to predict. The chapter also provides a brief overview of the relative importance of generalization and specialization in pollination ecology.
Keywords: experimental evidence, generalization, major pollinator, pollination ecology, specialization
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