I asked my botany professor this exact same question 10 years ago. He did not know the answer and I was too occupied with the rest of my undergraduate coursework to delve into it myself... My thoughts are perhaps it also has to do with the wavelengths of the spectrum and season. It may be a ltitle farfetched, but who knows? Perhaps the yellow flowers are the ones that benefit most from more intense or concentrated or [insert your own word here] wavelengths of the light spectrum during the fall season. Yellow, of course, being useless since it is the color reflected back to us.
Hmm. Jill > Tigard, OR 97223 > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Kim van der Linde > Sent: Monday, 18 September, 2006 14:55 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Yellow Flowers in the Fall > > > Howie Neufeld wrote: >> Dear All - I have been asked by a colleague if I know why yellow flowers >> seem to predominate in the fall, especially in open habitats, and I said >> I don't have any good theories at this time. Does anybody out there >> know about or have any theories? It could also be that yellow doesn't >> really dominate, but that certain species (goldenrods for example) are >> simply super abundant and they flower in the fall and "appear" to > dominate. >> Thanks! > > Most flower forms and colours are related to specific type of > pollinators (think about the red-poppy guild in the Middle east that > caters to large beetles as pollinators). So, my first question would be, > what are the pollinators of these plants, and are they particularly > active in fall? > > Kim > > -- > http://www.kimvdlinde.com >
