* Not all flowers rely on insects for pollination, or any pollinators at all. Many are wind-pollinated or self-pollinating (not that the basal lineage would be

* Not all flowers rely on insects for pollination, or any pollinators at all. Many are wind-pollinated or self-pollinating (not that the basal lineage would be asexual). * Insects do not necessarily rely on eyesight for pollination. Scent, for instance, is a strong attractant. * Insects need only be driven by a search for food for pollination to work. There is no requirement that they have specialized adaptations for nectar-gathering. Elaborate floral structures that require these adaptations evolved over time, along with their pollinators. * One common flaw in evolutionary/adaptive thinking is assuming that efficient solutions must be present from the outset of an adaptive trait. Incidental effects that provide only the slightest increase in fitness can easily be fixed in a population. Most importantly, though, this is really an investigation about structure. This is a common theme in plant development; many plant structures are highly analogous. Understanding the basal state of floral structures informs studies one the gene regulatory networks that control plant shape. For some context, I'd take a look at the well-characterized MADS-box genes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_model_of_flower_development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_model_of_flower_developmen...