Flowers’ roles considered in ecosystems and economics

Over the last 130 million years or so, flowers have evolved from pollen-making pipsqueaks about a millimeter across to include blossoms that are large, showy and fragrant. Scientists have identified some 250,000 species of flowering plants, pollination ecologist Stephen Buchmann writes in The Reason for Flowers. About two-thirds of those species are endangered or threatened, mostly because of habitat loss but also thanks to climate change.

Buchmann does much more than chronicle the evolution of flowers since the dinosaur era. He explores the myriad roles that blossoms play in the human realms of art and literature as well as in food and the economy.

The fruits and seeds of animal-pollinated flowers account for about one-third of the average human diet, Buchmann reports. Flowers are also big business: Worldwide, about 15 billion stems make their way to buyers each year. More than half pass through the most sprawling building in the world, a hangarlike facility near Amsterdam. The building covers more than half a square kilometer and hosts auctions processing about 21 million flowers each day. Breeders can easily spend $100,000 bringing a new variety of flower to market; those striving to create a holy grail of blossoms such as a truly blue rose may spend millions.

Click here to read the complete article at www.sciencenews.org.