How do plants evolve into new species to accommodate other species? This is what a recent study published in New Phytologist hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated longstanding models discussing how plant species evolve over time through encounters with pollinators, mainly birds. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand plant evolution and its connection with species evolution worldwide.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from samples of Aeschynanthus acuminatus (A. acuminatus), which is native to several Asian countries, with the researchers collecting samples from 172 individual flowers comprised of 44 populations, with 24 on mainland China and 20 on Taiwan. The goal of the study was to ascertain the ancestral lineage of A. acuminatus based on the bird pollinators who use the flower by using a longstanding model known as the Grant-Stebbins model, which is used to make a connection between plant evolution and pollinators. In the end, the researchers found that A. acuminatus originated on the mainland and evolved over time due to the various species of birds who pollinated it.
“At the heart of our study is a question of where species originate,” said Dr. Rick Ree, who is a curator at the Field Museum’s Negaunee Integrative Research Center and a co-author on the study. “There must have been a switch when this species evolved, when it went from having narrow flowers for sunbirds to wider flowers for more generalist birds. Where and when did the switch occur?”
This study builds on a 2025 study also published in New Phytologist that explored plant evolution using the Grant-Stebbins model, with that study finding a handful of pollinators were responsible for significant plant evolution on one type of flower.
What new insight into plant evolution and pollinators will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: New Phytologist, New Phytologist (1), EurekAlert!
Featured Image: A white-eared sibia (Heterophasia auricularis) pollinating Aeschynanthus acuminatus in Xitou, central Taiwan, with pollen visible on its forehead. (Credit: Jing-Yi Lu)
