Altruism or selfishness: Floral behavior based on genetic relatedness with neighboring plants

Kin recognition in plants may lead to plastic changes in their behavior, such as altering their floral display size. In this study, we conducted evolutionary simulations of the two floral tactics utilized by plants depending on the genetic relatedness of their neighboring plants. We found that the evolutionary consequences of floral display size in plants can be classified into four types, which were determined by pollinator foraging behavior and plant ecological traits. The plants that grew with kin behaved altruistically by increasing their floral display size, while those that coexisted with strangers behaved selfishly by reducing their floral display size. Moreover, our findings suggest that kin recognition also increases intraspecific variation in floral display size and seed production and decreases the genetic diversity of plant populations.

Methods
Evolutionary individual based (i.e., stochastic) simulation of floral display size.