Conspicuous, green flowers are an honest signal of nectar rewards in a bird-pollinated tree (Fuchsia excorticata, Onagraceae)

Abstract

Bird pollinated flowers typically appear ‘red’. Fuchsia excorticata (Onagraceae), a gynodioecious tree species endemic to New Zealand, is a notable exception. It produces ‘green’, cauliflorous flowers at early stages in flower ontogeny, when pistils are receptive. Flowers later turn ‘red’ as they lose their receptivity. We conducted field observations and spectrographic analyses to test whether: (1) receptive, green-phase flowers are actually more conspicuous to avian pollinators against their natural backgrounds than red-phase flowers, (2) green-phase flowers produce more nectar, and (3) relationships between flower conspicuousness and nectar production are similar in females and hermaphrodites. Results showed that the reflectance properties of green-phase flowers sharply contrast ‘orange’ tree bark, their natural visual background, rendering them more conspicuous to the avian eye than red-phase flowers. Green-phase flowers also produced more nectar than red-phase flowers as an honest signal of rewards. Similar results were observed in both female and hermaphrodite plants. Overall results provide an example of reversed flower-background colour contrasts, with ‘reddish’ hues being incorporated into the visual backgrounds of floral displays rather than being associated with the flowers themselves. They also illustrate that flower conspicuousness can serve as an honest signal of nectar rewards to pollinators.