DOI: 10.5061/dryad.s6tj198
title: Data from: A benefit to providing information? Flower size cues, plant attractiveness, and plant visit length

description: In many plant species, flower size is correlated with the production of
 floral rewards such as nectar and pollen and therefore provides
 information to pollinators about flower quality. However, how
 relationships between flower size and rewards influence plant fitness is
 not well understood. In particular, it is unclear whether indicating to
 pollinators which flowers are unrewarding harms or benefits plants. We
 used a laboratory system with artificial flowers to examine bumblebees’
 (Bombus impatiens) responses to plants that had flower size as an
 informative cue (with large flowers rewarding and small flowers
 unrewarding), as compared to ‘deceptive’ plants that had a mixture of
 rewarding and unrewarding large flowers and plants with only large,
 rewarding flowers. Bees had previously foraged in a context in which only
 large flowers provided rewards. Small flowers were visited less often than
 large flowers. In comparing plants with different numbers of flowers, we
 found that small flowers, while they added less to a plant’s
 attractiveness than large flowers, did increase a plant’s attractiveness
 if present in sufficient number. Furthermore, plants with informative cues
 received substantially fewer flower visits per plant visit in comparison
 with deceptive plants, even when the plants with informative cues had a
 larger number of flowers. Cues identifying unrewarding flowers could
 therefore reduce rates of within-plant pollen movement, increasing the
 plant’s fitness gains per flower visit. Their contribution to whole-plant
 attractiveness and avoidance of inbreeding could help explain why many
 plants produce small, relatively unrewarding flowers even though
 pollinators avoid visiting them.
description: Plant
 visitsNumber of times each
 type of plant was visited (i.e., the number of times the bee arrived at a
 plant of that type from another plant or the colony and visited at least
 one flower) in the first 4 minutes of foraging in each test. Each row
 corresponds to a different bee.PlantVisits.csvVisits per flowerNumber of visits per flower to small and large flowers during the first visit to each plant in the array. In this version of the file, occasions when a bee took off and then landed again on the same flower without landing on another flower first are counted as a single flower visit (that is, the revisit is not counted as a separate visit).VisitsPerFlower.csvVisits per flower, consec. revisits countedNumber of visits per flower to small and large flowers during the first visit to each plant in the array. In this version of the file, occasions when a bee took off and then landed again on the same flower without landing on another flower first are counted as separate flower visits.VisitsPerFlower_wRevis.csvFlower visits per plant visitNumber of flower visits (occasions when bee landed on a flower) during the first visit to each plant in the array. In this version of the file, occasions when a bee took off and then landed again on the same flower without landing on another flower first are counted as a single flower visit (that is, the revisit is not counted as a separate visit).VisitsPerPlant.csvFlower visits per plant visit, consec. revisits countedNumber of flower visits (occasions when bee landed on a flower) during the first visit to each plant in the array. In this version of the file, occasions when a bee took off and then landed again on the same flower without landing on another flower first are counted as separate flower visits.VisitsPerPlant_wRevis.csv