Data from: Functional decoupling between flowers and leaves in the Ameroglossum pernambucense complex can facilitate local adaptation across a pollinator and climatic heterogeneous landscape

Decoupling between floral and leaf traits are expected in plants with specialized pollination systems to assure a precise flower-pollinator fit, irrespective to leaf variation associated to environmental heterogeneity (functional modularity). Nonetheless, developmental interactions among floral traits also decouple flowers from leaves regardless to selection pressures (developmental modularity). We tested functional modularity in the hummingbird-pollinated flowers of the Ameroglossum pernambucense complex while controlling for developmental modularity. Using two functional traits responsible for flower-pollinator fit (floral tube length and anthers-nectary distance), one floral trait not linked to pollination (sepal length, control for developmental modularity) and one leaf trait (leaf length), we found evidence of flower functional modularity. Covariation between floral tube length and anthers-nectary distance was ca. two-fold higher than the covariation of either of these traits with sepal and leaf lengths, and variations of floral tube length and anthers-nectary distance, important for a precise flower-pollinator fit, were smaller than sepal length and leaf length variations. Furthermore, we show that previously reported among population variation of flowers associated to local pollinator phenotypes was independent from sepal length and leaf length variations. These results suggest that floral tube length and anthers-nectary distance are functionally linked to fit pollinators and sufficiently decoupled from developmentally related floral traits (sepal length) and vegetative traits (leaf length). These results support previous evidences of population differentiation due to local adaptation in the A. pernambucense complex, and shed light on the role of flower-leaf decoupling for local adaptation in species distributed across biotic and abiotic heterogeneous landscapes.