Premise of research. Phenotypic traits that consistently mediate species' responses to environmental variation (functional traits) provide a promising approach toward generalizing ecological and evolutionary patterns and thereby gaining insights into the processes generating them. In the plant functional ecology literature, most trait-based studies have focused on traits mediating either resource competition or responses to variation in the abiotic environment, while traits mediating reproductive interactions have often been neglected. Methodology. Here, I discuss the value of herkogamy, the spatial separation of male and female functions in flowers, as a functional trait in plant reproductive biology and review the evidence relevant to the hypothesis that taxa exhibiting greater herkogamy have historically experienced more reliable pollination and more outcrossed mating systems. Pivotal results. A large body of work in the field of plant reproductive biology has identified a set of nearly ubiquitous correlations between average herkogamy and features of plant mating systems, notably, autofertility (seed set in the absence of pollinators) and outcrossing rate. Herkogamy often varies extensively among populations and species, and the adaptive interpretation is that herkogamy exhibits local adaptation to the reliability of the pollination environment. Conclusions. These results underline the value of herkogamy as a functional trait representing variation in mating histories. Many important insights are likely to emerge from studies leveraging herkogamy as an easily measured proxy of plant mating systems, as already demonstrated in comparative studies and studies of reproductive interactions. Greater consideration of herkogamy and other reproductive-function traits in studies of species coexistence may provide a more complete understanding of community assembly processes.

Large-scale spatial variability in plant-pollinator communities (e.g. along geographic gradients, across different landscapes) is relatively well understood. However, we know much less about how these communities vary at small scales within a uniform landscape. Plants are sessile and highly sensitive to microhabitat conditions, whereas pollinators are highly mobile and, for the most part, display generalist feeding habits. Therefore, we expect plants to show greater spatial variability than pollinators. We analysed the spatial heterogeneity of a community of flowering plants and their pollinators in 40 plots across a 40-km(2) area within an uninterrupted Mediterranean scrubland. We recorded 3577 pollinator visits to 49 plant species. The pollinator community (170 species) was strongly dominated by honey bees (71.8% of the visits recorded). Flower and pollinator communities showed similar beta-diversity, indicating that spatial variability was similar in the two groups. We used path analysis to establish the direct and indirect effects of flower community distribution and honey bee visitation rate (a measure of the use of floral resources by this species) on the spatial distribution of the pollinator community. Wild pollinator abundance was positively related to flower abundance. Wild pollinator visitation rate was negatively related to flower abundance, suggesting that floral resources were not limiting. Pollinator and flower richness were positively related. Pollinator species composition was weakly related to flower species composition, reflecting the generalist nature of flower-pollinator interactions and the opportunistic nature of pollinator flower choices. Honey bee visitation rate did not affect the distribution of the wild pollinator community. Overall, we show that, in spite of the apparent physiognomic uniformity, both flowers and pollinators display high levels of heterogeneity, resulting in a mosaic of idiosyncratic local communities. Our results provide a measure of the background of intrinsic heterogeneity within a uniform habitat, with potential consequences on low-scale ecosystem function and microevolutionary patterns.