ALT Purple flowers of Dames Rocket

ALT Orchard area cleared of modern trees

ALT Pink and purple flowers with four petals. Dames Rocket

ALT While the response of plant species to climate change has been extensively studied, the evolutionary aspects of flowering phenology have received less attention. In a study of wind-pollinated Restionaceae (restios) in the Cape flora, the flowering times of a large number of species were examined to understand the factors influencing flowering time shifts. The results revealed that flowering time in restios is evolutionarily flexible, with species exhibiting diverse flowering patterns throughout the year. Flowering time shifts were not strongly explained by environmental factors or species traits, and allochronic (temporally separated) flowering between closely related species was common. However, at the community level, mean flowering time was associated with elevation, temperature, and rainfall. These findings suggest that flowering time shifts in restios may be influenced by assortative mating and allochronic speciation, potentially leading to non-adaptive radiation.