Flowering Plants

Pollinator coevolution and angiosperm radiation

Angiosperm Radiation

Flowering plants diversified explosively ~130 Mya — Darwin's "abominable mystery." Tight coevolution with pollinators drove rapid speciation.

Flower Morphology

Petal color, shape, UV patterns, and nectar rewards are precisely tuned to specific pollinators — bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, moths.

Pollination Networks

Mutualistic webs show nested structure — generalist species form core, specialists nest within. Robustness depends on this topology.