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Ashman and Schoen have proposed that plant fitness is an increasing function of pollination success, and a decreasing function of floral maintenance and production costs. They concluded that different pollination regimes, and different relative costs of flower construction and maintenance, determine optimal floral longevity for a species or population. Here we suggest another factor relevant to the evolution of flower lifespans. The pollinator-borne plant pathogen, the anther-smut Microbotryum violaceum (Pers.) Deml and Oberw, affects members of the pink family (Caryophyllaceae) and is mainly transmitted by pollinators. Successful infection requires several time-consuming processes. After a diploid teliospore, the dispersal unit of this basidiomycete fungus is carried to an uninfected plant by a pollinator, it undergoes meiosis, and two haploid sporidia of opposite mating type conjugate to produce the infectious dikaryon that invades the plant.