Coadapted competitors: the flowering seasons of hummingbird-pollinated plants in a tropical forest.

A system of compensating phenological responses of different species to unusual rainfall conditions may play a major role in maintaining an orderly, staggered sequence of flowering peaks among the hummingbird-pollinated plants of a Costa Rican rain forest. Quantitative phenological studies over several years may be essential to understanding the temporal organization of many tropical communities.