Digest: Fire-driven pollination niches maintain floral polymorphism

Abstract How temporal environmental variation influences evolutionary divergence and the maintenance of phenotypic diversity remains poorly understood. McCarren et al. (2026) addressed this question by examining how post-fire succession alters pollination niches in a plant with two floral phenotypes, Lapeirousia anceps. Their long-term study showed that predictable changes in pollination niches generate fluctuating selection that maintains floral polymorphism within a single population.