Floral Characters Link Herbivores, Pollinators, and Plant Fitness

Abstract

Our past focus on seed production as a surrogate for total plant fitness may have created a bias in our assessments of the effects of herbivory on plants. This bias may be especially pronounced if male and female plant fitness are differentially affected by damage. I describe the effects of leaf herbivory on several floral characters, including traits associated with male plant fitness. Changes in floral traits caused by foliar herbivory can also affect plant relationships with pollinators. Here, I highlight some understudied, indirect ways in which total plant fitness is affected by leaf herbivory. I then describe how considering these other routes to total plant fitness might contribute to current investigations on the evolution of plant defense and floral traits. Because data are lacking on several important aspects of these relationships, this contribution focuses primarily on new ideas and approaches to determining how herbivores and pollinators together shape plant characters.