Hi, There's an interesting little blurb about this issue in the new book The Nature Handbook by Ernest Williams. He says that the predominance of white and yellow flowers in the spring, and all season in some alpine areas, is due to predominance of color-blind pollinators, such as flies, at those times. later in the season as pollinator diversity increases, so does flower color diversity. Nothing in there about fall patterns though. He cites several references. Below is a link to the book, which is pretty interesting.
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/LifeSciences/Ecology/?view=usa&ci=9780195171945 On 9/21/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I have no idea why, or if, yellow flowers predominate in the fall but I > would like to ask the taxonomists among us to clarify a point from Steve > Brewer's posting. > > Steve refers to the "Astereae" as a subfamily of composites. It is my > understanding that Asteraceae is now the accepted name for what was once > known as the composite family (Compositae). > > Bob Mowbray > Tropical Forest Ecologist > Volunteer Docent, U. S. Botanic Garden > > -------------- Original message from Steve Brewer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > -------------- > > [snip] > a likely reason why most of the composites in the Astereae > [snip] > > result of a phylogenetic constraint within the Astereae subfamily of > composites, which represents a large proportion of the plants flowering > right now in the East. > [snip] > -- Robert J. Miller, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Scholar Santa Barbara Channel LTER Marine Science Institute University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara CA 93106-6150 (805) 893-7295
