Research Advances in the Effect of Altitude on Floral Traits
Floral traits are important for plant propagation and they show different adaptations in heterogeneous environments.Altitude is considered to be a vital factor in studying the variation of floral traits due to its complex environmental factors of multi-dimensions and multi-gradients.In the context of global climate change,it is greatly significant to study the effect of altitude on floral traits of plants.This paper reviews the effect of altitude on floral traits,and categorizes floral traits into three parts of floral design,floral display,and community floral traits.The floral design is described in four aspects of perianth,gynoecium,androecium and herkogamy variation,and the floral display is described in three aspects of flower display area,flower number and inflorescence size.The community floral traits are described in three parts of blossom-type spatial pattern,floral color diversity,and the flowering phenology.On the basis of the existing research,we put forward the future research directions in hope to provide references for the future research on the effects of altitude on floral traits and provide new ideas for biodiversity conservation.