[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172460.].

In southern England, Linaria vulgaris (common yellow toadflax) suffers from high rates of nectar robbery by bumblebees. In a wild population of L. vulgaris we found that 96 % of open flowers were robbed. Five species of bumblebee were observed foraging on these flowers, although short-tongued species (Bombus lapidarius, B. lucorum and B. terrestris) robbed nectar whilst longer-tongued ones beha...

Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) and honeybees, Apis mellifera, both use odour cues deposited on flowers by previous visitors to improve their foraging efficiency. Short-lived repellent scents are used to avoid probing flowers that have recently been depleted of nectar and/or pollen, and longer-term attractant scents to indicate particularly rewarding flowers. Previous research has indicated that bumbl...

Many co-sexual plants segregate female and male function among flowers on an inflorescence through dichogamy or the production of unisexual flowers. Sexual segregation may reduce self-pollination among flowers within inflorescences (geitonogamy), thereby increasing the pollen available for export to other plants. To assess these complementary roles we manipulated the simultaneously hermaphrodit...

In this Quick Guide, Johnson introduces the reader to carrion flowers, which evolved to mimic rotting flesh. This adaptation attracts insects that facilitate pollination.

Many insects which gather nectar or pollen exhibit flower constancy, a learned fidelity to a particular species of plant. Recent studies suggest that foraging insects may use a perceptual mechanism akin to a search image to detect flowers, in a manner analogous to the way that predators search for prey. This has emerged as an alternative (but not mutually exclusive) explanation for flower const...

A new species of Carex sect. Rhomboidales, C. jianfengensis, is described and illustrated from Hainan, China. The new species is similar to C. zunyiensis but differs in having involucral bracts sparsely hispid and with ca.1 cm long sheaths; inflorescence with 4 spikes, terminal spike ca. 2.5 cm long, lateral spikes 2-3.5 × 0.7-1 cm; staminate glumes narrowly ovate, ca. 5 mm; pistillate glumes t...

Elatostema pleiophlebium and Elatostema malipoense, two endemic species from southeast Yunnan of China, are described and illustrated. Their diagnostic characters, description and relationship with morphologically similar species are also given. Elatostema pleiophlebium is easily recognised by its glabrous stem and leaf blade, and its longitudinally 1-ribbed outer staminate bracts. Elatostema m...

Floral color changes and retention of old flowers are frequently combined phenomena restricted to the floral guide or single flowers in few-flowered inflorescences. They are thought to increase the attractiveness over long distances and to direct nearby pollinators toward the rewarding flowers. In Tibouchina pulchra, a massively flowering tree, the whole flower changes its color during anthesis...