Checking billy barr’s snow log…
As the climate changes, plants can change to adapt to these new conditions (Anderson & Gezon, 2015). Varied water availability, especially drought conditions, severely stresses flowers and results in smaller, shorter-lived, or aborted flowers, as flowers are an investment that drives significant water loss for the plant (Bourbia et al., 2020; Burkle & Runyon, 2016; Carroll et al., 2001; Dafni, 1996; Lankinen et al., 2017). I investigated the relationship between water availability and floral traits, including flower and disc size, flower and anther depth, inflorescence height, and floral display in the plant species Heterotheca villosa by experimentally adding water. I found significant differences in soil moisture and anther depth between the control and wet treatment groups, in which soil moisture was higher and anther depth was longer in the wet treatment group. These results indicate a relationship and mechanism of water allocation to specific floral traits in different water conditions and an overall resiliency to varying water availability.
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