Abstract
Species in Lonicera genus are magic elves with excellent
adaptability to varying environments with the aid of the divergent
morphological and color pattern variation. Flowers undergo strong
selection of both biotic and abiotic factors with species-specific
morphology and color strategies. Take Lonicera nervosa (L.
nervosa) and Lonicera tangutica (L. tangutica) as
representative species, two sister taxa of Lonicera widespread in
alpine to subalpine ecosystems in the same region, which present ideal
subject in terms of evolution and adaptation of flowers to determine
underlying ecological implications with close evolutionary relationship:
(1) both species present differentiation in floral structure, corolla
orientation and anther position; (2) L. nervosa has constant
color while L. tangutica undergoes color change during
florescence (3) Both species share the same pollinators, distribution
and specimen coordinates show that the two species of Lonicera
have similar distribution centers.