Invasive alien plants can compete with native plants for resources, and may ultimately decrease native plant diversity and/or abundance in invaded sites. This could have consequences for native mutualistic interactions, such as pollination. Although invasive plants often become highly connected in plant-pollinator interaction networks, in temperate climates they usually only flower for part of ...

Phenological changes among plants due to climate change are well documented, but often hard to interpret. In order to assess the adaptive value of observed changes, we study how annual plants with and without growth constraints should optimize their flowering time when productivity and season length changes. We consider growth constraints that depend on the plant's vegetative mass: self-shading...

Early flowering is an important trait influencing grain yield and quality in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) in short-season cropping regions. However, due to large and complex genomes of these species, direct identification of flowering genes and their molecular characterization remain challenging. Here, we used a bioinformatic approach to predict flowering-related...

Objectives-To investigate atopy and changes in symptoms, peak flow rate, and bronchial reactivity in people complaining of symptoms during the oilseed rape flowering season. Methods-37 people who had given positive answers to questions about the presence of symptoms in relation to the flowering season of oilseed rape and 24 controls with no such symptoms were studied, although not all took part...

Examination of phenological patterns of tropical trees at different temporal and spatial scales can elucidate biotic and abiotic factors that correlate with fruiting, flowering and/or leaf set patterns. In this study, 3793 trees from 104 species in Kibale National Park, Uganda were monitored. The trees were selected from two sites (Kanyawara and Ngogo) separated by 10 km. Trees were monitored m...

Climate change is expected to alter patterns of species co-occurrence, in both space and time. Species-specific shifts in reproductive phenology may alter the assemblages of plant species in flower at any given time during the growing season. Temporal overlap in the flowering periods (co-flowering) of animal-pollinated species may influence reproductive success if competitive or facilitative in...

Phenology--the timing of biological events--is highly sensitive to climate change. However, our general understanding of how phenology responds to climate change is based almost solely on incomplete assessments of phenology (such as first date of flowering) rather than on entire phenological distributions. Using a uniquely comprehensive 39-y flowering phenology dataset from the Colorado Rocky M...

Despite the potential importance of divergent reproductive phenologies as a barrier to gene flow, we know less about the genetics of this factor than we do about any other isolating barrier. Here, we report on the genetic architecture of divergent flowering phenologies that result in substantial reproductive isolation between the naturally hybridizing plant species Iris fulva and I. brevicaulis...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Flowering plants display considerable variation in mating system, specifically the relative frequency of cross- and self-fertilization. The majority of estimates of outcrossing rate do not account for temporal variation, particularly during the flowering season. Here, we investigated seasonal variation in mating and fertility in Incarvillea sinensis (Bignoniaceae), an annual...

The distribution of flowering across the growing season is governed by each species' evolutionary history and climatic variability. However, global change factors, such as eutrophication and invasion, can alter plant community composition and thus change the distribution of flowering across the growing season. We examined three ecoregions (tall-, mixed, and short-grass prairie) across the U.S. ...