PERSPECTIVE: EVOLUTION OF FLOWER COLOR IN THE DESERT ANNUAL LINANTHUS PARRYAE: WRIGHT REVISITED

• Published in: Evolution Vol. 55; no. 7; pp. 1269 - 1282
• Main Authors: Schemske, Douglas W, Bierzychudek, Paulette
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Society for the Study of Evolution 01.07.2001; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Adaptation, Physiological; Biological Evolution; California; Color; Desert Climate; Deserts; Ecological competition; Evolution; Fertilization; Flower color; Flowers; Flowers & plants; Gene Frequency; Genes, Plant - genetics; Genetic drift; isolation by distance; Linanthus parryae; Magnoliopsida - genetics; Magnoliopsida - physiology; Models, Genetic; Natural selection; Phenotype; Pigmentation - genetics; Plant density; Plant Structures - genetics; Plant Structures - growth & development; Plants; Pollen - metabolism; Pollinators; polymorphism; Polymorphism, Genetic - genetics; Precipitation; Rain; REGULAR ARTICLES; Seed production; Seeds - genetics; Seeds - growth & development; Selection, Genetic; Sewall Wright; shifting balance theory; Water - metabolism

Linanthus parryae, a diminutive desert annual with white or blue flowers, has been the focus of a long-standing debate among evolutionary biologists. At issue is whether the flower color polymorphism in this species is the product of random genetic drift, as Sewall Wright argued, or of natural selec...