Pollen limitation and variation in floral longevity in gynodioecious Potentilla tanacetifolia

Pollination limitation is common in flowering plants and is thought to be a factor driving the evolution of floral traits.The plasticity of floral longevity to pollination may be an adaptation of plants to pollen limitation.However,this adaptation is less critical in short-lived flowers.To evaluate pollen limitation and the plasticity of floral longevity to pollination in Potentilla tanacetifolia,a gynodioecious herb with short-lived flowers,we analyzed its breeding system,tested sex-differential pollen limitation,and compared variations in floral display size in natural populations in Duolun County,Inner Mongolia,China.Hand pollination experiments and pollinator exclusion treatments revealed that P tanacetifolia is self-compatible and non-autonomously apomictic and shows sex-differential pollen limitation.The plasticity of floral longevity to pollination was observed; the floral duration of female plants was prolonged by approximately 3-4 hours with pollination exclusion treatment.Moreover,the percentage of flowers displayed on female plants during pollination exclusion treatment was significantly higher than that during natural pollination.Under natural pollination conditions,the percentage of flowers displayed on female plants was significantly higher than on hermaphrodite plants.Furthermore,approximately 50％ of the pollen grains spread out of the anthers of hermaphrodite flowers within 2 h of anthesis; the number of pollen grains adhering to the stigmas of hermaphrodite flowers was significantly higher than that adhering to female flowers when flowers shed their petals.These results indicate that variation in floral longevity may be an adaptive strategy to pollination conditions for gynodioecious P tanacetifolia.     

An angiosperm-wide analysis of the gynodioecy–dioecy pathway

Background and Aims

About 6 % of an estimated total of 240 000 species of angiosperms are dioecious. The main precursors of this sexual system are thought to be monoecy and gynodioecy. A previous angiosperm-wide study revealed that many dioecious species have evolved through the monoecy pathway; some case studies and a large body of theoretical research also provide evidence in support of the gynodioecy pathway. If plants have evolved through the gynodioecy pathway, gynodioecious and dioecious species should co-occur in the same genera. However, to date, no large-scale analysis has been conducted to determine the prevalence of the gynodioecy pathway in angiosperms. In this study, this gap in knowledge was addressed by performing an angiosperm-wide survey in order to test for co-occurrence as evidence of the gynodioecy pathway.

Methods

Data from different sources were compiled to obtain (to our knowledge) the largest dataset on gynodioecy available, with 275 genera that include at least one gynodioecious species. This dataset was combined with a dioecy dataset from the literature, and a study was made of how often dioecious and gynodioecious species could be found in the same genera using a contingency table framework.

Key Results

It was found that, overall, angiosperm genera with both gynodioecious and dioecious species occur more frequently than expected, in agreement with the gynodioecy pathway. Importantly, this trend holds when studying different classes separately (or sub-classes, orders and families), suggesting that the gynodioecy pathway is not restricted to a few taxa but may instead be widespread in angiosperms.

Conclusions

This work complements that previously carried out on the monoecy pathway and suggests that gynodioecy is also a common pathway in angiosperms. The results also identify angiosperm families where some (or all) dioecious species may have evolved from gynodioecious precursors. These families could be the targets of future small-scale studies on transitions to dioecy taking phylogeny explicitly into account.     

The frequency, distribution and reproductive biology of dioecious species in the native flora of Britain and Ireland

The proportion of dioecious species in the flora of the British Isles has been underestimated in the past, partly because the total number of native species was overestimated and partly because some dioecious species were omitted for various reasons. We estimate that, in a total native angiosperm flora of 1377 species and species-equivalents, 4.3% (59 species) are dioecious, a substantially higher percentage than the previous estimates of 2, 3.1 and 3%. If gymnosperms are included, 4.4% (61 of 1380 species of seed plant) are dioecious. A review of published work shows that few of these dioecious species have been well-studied, and that for some little or no information is available about their sex ratios and reproductive biology.     

开花式样对传粉者行为及花粉散布的影响

理解植物花的特征可以从单花特征和群体特征两个层次入手。开花式样是植物的花在群体上的特征体现, 通过在开花数目、开花类型以及花的排列上的变化, 不同的开花式样对传粉者具有不同的吸引力, 影响昆虫在植株上的活动, 使花粉运动的方向发生相应变化, 从而影响着植物最终的交配结果。此外开花式样随环境改变也会发生一些变化。本文介绍了开花式样研究的进展, 对开花数目、开花类型以及花的排列等3个方面的已有研究进行了分别阐述, 并提出开花式样研究应更多地考虑影响传粉的各种因素。     

Selection on floral and carbon uptake traits of Lobelia siphilitica is similar in females and hermaphrodites

Sexual dimorphism is common in plants and animals. Although this dimorphism is often assumed to be adaptive, natural selection has rarely been measured on sexually dimorphic traits of plants. We measured phenotypic selection via seed set on two floral and four carbon uptake traits of female and hermaphrodite Lobelia siphilitica. Because females can reproduce only via seeds, which are costlier than pollen, we predicted that females with smaller flowers and enhanced carbon uptake would have higher fitness, resulting in either sex morph-specific directional selection or stabilizing selection for different optimal trait values in females and hermaphrodites. We found that directional selection on one carbon uptake trait differed between females and hermaphrodites. We did not detect significant stabilizing selection on traits of either sex morph. Our results provide little support for the hypothesis that sexual dimorphism in gynodioecious plants evolved in response to sex morph-specific selection.     

Pollinator response to female and male floral display in a monoecious species and its implications for the evolution of floral dimorphism

Pollinator-mediated selection has been hypothesized as one cause of size dimorphism between female and male flowers. Flower number, ignored in studies of floral dimorphism, may interact with flower size to affect pollinator selectivity. In the present study, we explored pollinator response, and estimated pollen receipt and removal, in experimental populations of monoecious Sagittaria trifolia, in which plants were manipulated to display three, six, nine or 12 female or male flowers per plant. In this species, female flowers are smaller but have a more compressed flowering period than males, creating larger female floral displays. Overall, pollinators preferred to visit male rather than female displays of the same size. Both first visit per foraging bout and visitation rates to female displays increased with display size. However, large male displays did not show increased attractiveness to pollinators. A predicted relationship that pollen removal, rather than pollen receipt, is limited by pollinator visitation was confirmed in the experimental populations. The results suggest that the lack of selection on large male displays may affect the evolution of floral dimorphism in this species.     

雪莲的开花生物学特性及其生态适应意义

雪莲(Saussurea involucrata)是一种典型的高山草本植物, 同时也是我国重点保护的珍稀药用植物。该文对雪莲的开花生物学特性及其对高山环境的适应策略进行了观测与分析。主要结果如下: 雪莲不育花序单生于茎生叶的叶腋内, 可育复头状花序生长于茎顶端, 由26 ± 7个头状花序构成, 每个花序的小花数为137 ± 34个。复头状花序外侧为绿色至淡黄色半透明的茎生苞叶所包被, 开花过程中, 白天茎生苞叶内侧温度和湿度明显高于外侧的温度和湿度, 最大温差达7.2 ℃, 最大相对湿度差达54.2%, 可为苞叶内侧花序中小花的传粉和受精以及胚和种子的发育提供良好的微环境。不同年份间雪莲的开花物候差异不显著(p > 0.05), 群体花期为65-75天, 单株花期为45-55天, 盛花期持续时间约35天, 平均每株每天开花数为201个, 属于集中开花模式, 有利于吸引传粉者。单花开放持续时间为4-6天, 小花泌蜜持续时间为3天, 其泌蜜量与糖浓度于每天 12:00时达到最高值, 但随着开花的持续, 日泌蜜量逐渐增加, 而糖浓度逐渐减少。雪莲花期浓郁的气味、聚合成复头状的可育花序及其紫色小花与充足的泌蜜量, 增加了对传粉者的吸引力。雪莲开花过程中存在的雌雄异位、雄性先熟以及被动式花粉次级展现现象, 减少了自花授粉的可能性。自然条件下, 其头状花序的结籽数和结籽率分别为126.0 ± 10.5粒和91.7% ± 4.2%, 单株结籽数为3 326.4 ± 28.7, 表明雪莲在高山极端环境中能顺利地完成有性生殖过程。