Special cases

AbstractThis chapter deals with topics that are contentious, difficult to categorize, or fall somewhat outside the mainstream of floral mimicry research. The concept of Müllerian mimicry has been applied to resemblance among rewarding flowers, but this chapter shows that the evidence that this reflects a process of mimicry remains tenuous. Intersexual resemblance of flowers of dioecious plants is clearly not mimicry in the classical sense, but selection does appear to maintain similarity, particularly in cases where only one sex offers a reward. These special cases illustrate the potentially ubiquitous nature of mimicry phenomena and also the fact that many mimicry systems involve more species than just a single mimic, model, and operator.