Overview
- University of Reading researchers report in Biology Letters (March 18) that faster shifts in cactus flower morphology predict higher speciation rates.
- Measurements of flower length across more than 750 species, ranging from 2 mm to 37 cm, showed little link between absolute size and diversification.
- The association between rapid floral change and speciation holds across both recent and deep evolutionary timescales, regardless of pollinator type.
- The study draws on the open-access CactEcoDB, published this month in Nature Scientific Data after seven years assembling trait, habitat and phylogenetic data.
- With nearly one-third of cacti threatened, the authors urge conservation plans to factor in evolutionary pace, highlighting deserts as dynamic evolutionary arenas.