ORIGIN OF FLORAL ISOLATION BETWEEN ORNITHOPHILOUS AND SPHINGOPHILOUS PLANT-SPECIES

Three plant groups in temperate western North America contain closely related ornithophilous and sphingophilous species: the Aquilegia formosa/Aquilegia caerula group (Ranunculaceae), the Ipomopsis aggregata group (Polemoniaceae), and the Diplacus longiflorus group (Scrophulariaceae). The ornithophilous and sphingophilous species are products of allopatric speciation on the diploid level. Geographical races which are adapted to one class of pollinators in one area where these pollinators are abundant and effective and to another class of pollinators in another geographically isolated area (pollination races) represent a probable intermediate stage in the process of allopatric speciation. Mechanical and ethological isolation (collectively, floral isolation) is a by-product of the divergence in pollination systems. Selection for reproductive isolation per se has not played any detectable role in the origin of the floral isolation in the three plant groups.