Fragmentary blue – the paradox in flower colors in arctic and alpine ecosystems.

Alpine ecosystems are characterized by high diversity of flowering plants. However, a discrepancy between flower color vision by human versus pollinator eyes has been found. We measured light reflectance properties of 315 flowering plant species from calcareous and siliceous, subalpine and alpine grasslands in Europe. The discrepancy between human and pollinator vision increases with elevation. Calcareous grasslands have a higher color diversity and a higher number of blue and bluegreen flowers than siliceous grasslands. Although alpine areas harbor a higher number of plant species, subalpine areas show higher color diversity.