Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Evolutionary Biology Volume 2014, Article ID 382453, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/382453 Research Article Diversification in Monkeyflowers: An Investigation of the Effects of Elevation and Floral Color in the Genus Mimulus Ezgi Ogutcen, Brooklyn Hamper, and Jana C. Vamosi DepartmentofBiologicalSciences,UniversityofCalgary,2500UniversityDriveNW,Calgary,AB,CanadaT2N1N4 Correspondence should be addressed to Jana C. Vamosi;
[email protected] Received 14 August 2013; Revised 16 November 2013; Accepted 20 November 2013; Published 5 January 2014 Academic Editor: Hirohisa Kishino Copyright © 2014 Ezgi Ogutcen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The vast diversity of floral colours in many flowering plant families, paired with the observation of preferences among pollinators, suggests that floral colour may be involved in the process of speciation in flowering plants. While transitions in floral colour have been examined in numerous genera, we have very little information on the consequences of floral colour transitions to the evolutionary success of a clade. Overlaid upon these patterns is the possibility that certain floral colours are more prevalent in certain environments, with the causes of differential diversification being more directly determined by geographical distribution. Herewe examine transition rates to anthocyanin + carotenoid rich (red/orange/fuschia) flowers and examine whether red/orange flowers are associated with differences in speciation and/or extinction rates in Mimulus. Because it has been suggested that reddish flowers are more prevalent at high elevation, we also examine the macroevolutionary evidence for this association and determine if there is evidence for differential diversification at high elevations.