Floral biology

Floral biology is an area of ecological research that studies the evolutionary factors that have moulded the structures, behaviours and physiological aspects involved in the flowering of plants.

The field is broad and interdisciplinary and involves research requiring expertise from multiple disciplines that can include botany, ethology, biochemistry, and entomology.

The evolution of the size of flowers, their structure and the nature of rewards and the way these signals are transmitted and perceived by potential pollinators are typically examined in terms of the costs incurred and the benefits accrued.

[2] Studies in floral biology can have applications since pollination and fruit set are key factors that affect yield in all crop plants.

Sprengel's work was favourably viewed by Carl Ludwig Willdenow who incorporated some of the results in his Grundriss der Kräuterkunde zu Vorlesungen (1802).

[6] At that time flowers were considered the place for the marriage of the stamens and pistils and nectar was thought to aid the growing seeds.

[9] The earliest groups of flowering plants among the Magnoliids and the families Chloranthaceae, Ceratophyllaceae, Nymphaeaceae, Annonaceae, and Aristolochiaceae are bisexual with both male and female parts present and functional within the usually large floral structure.

The forces that led to the evolution of such systems as bearing male and female flowers on separate kinds of plants is still unclear.

[14] In the classic case of orchids in the genus Ophrys, the volatiles mimic the female sex pheromone of bees which attempt to copulate with the flower and thereby pollinate them.

Some distinct patterns have been noted, for instance bird-pollinated flowers are predominantly red while night-flowering plants tend to be white.