Pollen precedence and stigma closure: a mechanism of competition for pollination between Delphinium nelsonii and Ipomopsis aggregata

Summary Previous experiments showed that the sympatric herbs Delphinium nelsonii and Ipomopsis aggregata compete for hummingbird pollination and that deleterious effects of the former species on seed set of the latter involve interspecific pollen transfer. However, seed set was not reduced when pollen of both species was applied simultaneously to I. aggregata stigmas. Hence a competitive effect may require arrival of foreign pollen before conspecific pollen. To explore this possibility we subjected I. aggregata flowers to a competition treatment in which they received D. nelsonii pollen 6 h before I. aggregata pollen, or to a control in which they received only the conspecific pollen. Foreign pollen precedence decreased mean seed set by almost 50%, which is consistent with effects observed in previous experiments. Reduced seed set can be explained by the fact that foreign pollen often caused stigma lobes to close together within 1.5–6 h, reducing subsequent receptivity. Stigma closure was also elicited by conspecific pollen, but not by mechanical stimulation, and was influenced by size of the pollen load and identity of the plant being pollinated.