A test of the bicolored fruit display hypothesis: Berry removal with artificial fruit flags

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2003

Abstract

The fruit flag (Stiles 1982) and the bicolored fruit display (Willson and Thompson 1982) hypotheses state that plants with fruit displays that provide contrast within the infructescence, the plant, or their surrounding environment, serve to attract birds, thereby increasing fruit consumption and seed dispersal. We simulated fruit flags by attaching infructescenses from pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) to wooden stakes wrapped with different colors of flagging tape - fluorescent pink, fluorescent green, and black. Pokeweed is a plant hypothesized to utilize fruit flags and has stems that turn from green to bright pink as berries along infructescences ripen to purple-black. In two habitats, removal rates from brightly colored stakes (pink and green) were significantly higher than those from black stakes, indicating that a bicolored fruit display increased fruit removal by birds. There were no consistent differences in removal from pink and green stakes suggesting that the particular color of the flag may not be as important as the contrast between the flag and the fruit.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society

First Page

30

Last Page

33

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