Data from the paper "Sperotto et al. 2025 - Evolutionary shift in petal function from pollinator attraction to water drainage in small buzz-pollinated flowers"

Paper abstract:Buzz pollination is an ecological interaction where bees vibrate anthers of flowers to extract pollen as a food resource. Damping of anthers by water accumulation may negatively impact buzz pollination success, which likely contributes to the tendency of buzz pollinated species to occur in drier environments. Tribe Miconieae (Melastomataceae), which is Neotropical and mostly buzz pollinated, is an exception to this trend, frequently occurring in humid places. We tested the hypothesis that Miconieae species occurring in humid areas and/or blooming during the wet seasons tend to have drip-tip petals as a tool for water drainage. We analyzed species’ petal shape, flower size, phenology and climatic niches using a set of phylogenetic comparative methods. We found that the occurrence of species with drip-tip petals correlates with more humid and less seasonal habitats. We also found that flower size and phenology significantly impacted the evolution of petal shape in Miconieae species, with small flowered species that bloom during wet seasons being more likely to evolve drip-tip petals. We argue that the petals of Miconieae lineages in which an acute shape initially emerged exapted from their primary function of pollinator attraction to water drainage, with later ameliorations to drip-tips being secondary adaptations.