Floral adaptations of two lilies: implications for the evolution and pollination ecology of huge trumpet-shaped flowers.
Chang-Qiu LiuYun-Dong GaoYang NiuYing-Ze XiongHang SunPublished in: American journal of botany (2019)
Adaptation to short-tongued hawkmoths may have initiated the evolution of trumpet-shaped lilies. Huge trumpet-shaped lilies may have evolved as a response to selection by long-tongued hawkmoths, without excluding the short-tongued ones. This evolutionary pathway leads to a functionally more generalized pollination system instead of an increasingly specialized one and is not necessarily associated with pollinator shifts.