Flower power with the family

For centuries, people have conveyed feelings of happiness and love with flowers. Now an EU research team has found that plants flower more when surrounded by relatives compared to when growing with strangers or alone.

The EU-funded project KinCoop has investigated if natural selection can favour selfish or cooperative behaviour when it comes to flower production and reproduction. “We assessed how different social environments in terms of density and genetic relatedness may influence allocation of resources through the effect of sharing pollinators and the effect this will have on mating patterns and plant fitness,” outlines Dr Rubén Torices, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow and lead project researcher. Plant fitness is simply reflected in its ability to reproduce successfully, and includes flowering and seed production after successful pollination.

Further information: Flower power with the family