Functional attributes, environmental cues, and phylogeny interact with each other to shape the diversity of flowering patterns. Phenological differentiation among species groups revealed multiples strategies associated with growth form and pollination syndromes that can be important for understanding species coexistence in this highly diverse plant community.

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This study describes composition, structure and diversity of vegetation in the Cerro El Águila, Michoacán. Five plant communities were recognized and for each one all woody individuals ≥10 cm DBH were tallied in sixteen 400 m 2 circular plots, whereas individuals between 2.5 and 9.9 cm DBH were measured in a 100 m 2 circular subplot centered within each larger plot. A total of 46 species, 33 genera and 21 families were recorded. The tropical deciduous forest and Quercus deserticola forest had low values of mean plant height (< 5 m) and basal area (17.8 and 26 m 2 /ha, respectively), but these communities showed the higher density. Forests dominated by Q. rugosa and Quercus-Pinus had the lowest density but the highest mean height (> 11 m) and basal area (> 40 m 2 /ha). Diversity was greater in the tropical deciduous forest (S= 23 and α= 5.4, respectively) and lower in the oak-pine forest (S= 13 and α= 2.71). All communities displayed different dominant species and high beta diversity. Our results suggest that composition and structure could be affected by altitude and human activities. Nevertheless, the Cerro El Águila still has well conservation areas, mainly temperate forests located toward summit zone and we recommend their inclusion in a near future within the state reserve system.

Plant‐pollinator interactions are fundamental to ecosystem functioning; however, the role that succession and phenology have on these interactions is poorly understood, particularly in endangered tropical ecosystems. In highly diverse ecosystems such as tropical dry forests (TDF), variation in water and food availability determines the life cycles of animal pollinators. Therefore, understanding patterns of flowering phenology and plant‐pollinator interactions across seasons in successional environments is key to maintaining and restoring TDF. We analysed the functional dynamics of plant‐floral visitor interactions at the community level across a successional gradient in a Mexican TDF. We evaluated changes in the diversity of blooming plant species and floral visitors, phenological patterns, interaction network metrics and beta diversity among early, intermediate and late successional stages, between dry and rainy seasons. We found a higher diversity of blooming plant species and a higher richness of animal species in the intermediate and late successional stages. Peak abundance of floral visitors overlapped with flowering peaks in the late successional stages, but this was not consistently the case in the early and intermediate stages. Plant‐floral visitors networks differed in structure according to successional stage and season, but specialisation metrics were higher in late successional stages. Interaction networks were more dissimilar between dry and rainy seasons within successional stages than within seasons between successional stages, suggesting connectivity across successional sites during each season. In addition, closely related plant species do not share the same pollination systems in any successional stage. Synthesis. Our results showed that plant‐floral visitor interactions are dynamic and vary with flowering phenology and with successional changes in plant and animal diversity. Plant‐floral visitor interactions were more diverse and specialised in the late successional stages. In the rainy season, differences in network structure among successional stages are due to interaction rewiring, while in the dry season, it is caused by species turnover. Our results demonstrate that seasonality plays a key role in community diversity and network structure and highlight the importance of conserving mature forests to ensure the maintenance of critical pollination interactions across all successional stages.

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