Diverse visitors with various pollinator importance and temporal change in the important pollinators of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Geranium thunbergii</Emphasis> (Geraniaceae)

Assessing pollinator importance of each floral visitor to a plant species is a key to understanding plant–pollinator interaction. The present study examined visitation frequency, pollination efficiency, and pollinator importance of the full range of floral visitors to Geranium thunbergii natural population, by measuring seed-set. During 2 years of observations, the flowers were visited by at least 45 insect species belonging to four orders. Among the main 22 visitor species, 11 species belonging to three orders (Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera) acted as the efficient pollinators. In both years, Hymenoptera, especially bees, was the most important pollinator to G.thunbergii. Thus, the flowers could be considered as bee-pollinated. However, the most important species were not constant between years. The study also documented that the efficient pollinators have larger body sizes. The dish-shaped floral morphology, taxonomically diverse pollinators, and temporal change in the most important pollinators indicate that G.thunbergii–pollinator interaction is a rather generalized system. The results suggest that casual observations of visitation, or even precise measurement of pollinator importance in a single season is insufficient to identify important pollinators.     

蓝花丹结实率低的传粉生物学和繁育系统初探

为解释蓝花丹自然结实率低的原因,该研究从传粉生物学和繁育系统入手,采用TTC法与联苯胺-过氧化氢法分别测定花粉活力和柱头可授性的动态变化;用花粉-胚珠比(P/O比)、杂交指数(OCI)估算蓝花丹繁育系统类型并通过人工控制授粉试验验证。结果表明:(1)蓝花丹L型雌器官与S型雄器官、L型雄器官与L型雌器官成熟时间重叠区域较多,雌雄性器官在成熟时间上无显著差异;而S型雌器官与L型雄器官、S型雌器官与S型雄器官成熟时间重叠区域较少,但蓝花丹持续开花的模式缓解了雌雄性器官时间差异而引起的生殖隔离。(2)蓝花丹L型花P/O为502.00±52.30,S型花P/O为482.70±87.91,OCI为4,综合判断蓝花丹的繁育系统属于专性异交型且具有异型自交不亲和的特性。综上可初步解释蓝花丹自然结实率低的原因为内外因素共同作用的结果,其中雌雄性器官同熟时间短不是主要原因,而其本身较强的自交不亲和性可能是自然结实率低下的关键性内因。由于蓝花丹的专性异交繁育系统使其成功授粉需要传粉媒介,但因引种地与原产地环境存在显著差异,同时开花模式不集中导致的缺乏传粉者完成异花授粉或许是引起异交成功率降低的主要外因。因此,提高蓝花丹的结实率应从克服其自身自交不亲和性以及适当引入安全传媒昆虫入手。     

The evolutionary breakdown of distyly inLinum tenuifolium (Linaceae)

Distyly inLinum tenuifolium L. is associated with a high degree of self-incompatibility. Breakdown in this system has occurred without the morphological rearrangement expected as the result of cross-over within the distyly supergene. Pollen-flow in both distylous and monomorphic populations is leptokurtic. A high proportion of intra-flower pollination occurs. Pollen production per ovule is reduced in the self-compatible race. Mean seed-set is increased. Individuals of the self-compatible race produce less vegetative growth and require a shorter time to reach reproductive maturity under cultivation. Increased fecundity appears to provide the selective advantage promoting the breakdown of self-incompatibility in this species. This is achieved through a massive shift of resources toward female reproductive function in plants of the monomorphic race. Subsequent colonization by this race has led to its increased distribution in C. & S. Europe.     

Effects of population size and pollinator limitation on seed-set of Primula sieboldii populations in a fragmented landscape

Female reproductive success, fruit and seed-set and factors affecting them were measured for 3 years (1995–1997) for 24 populations of Primula sieboldii E. Morren, a threatened Japanese plant species in a highly fragmented landscape in southern Hokkaido. The smaller populations (genets <=; 3) set almost no seeds consistently during the study years. In larger populations (genets >= 7), proportions of failed flowers without damage from fungi or herbivores were relatively high, but fruit set per flower varied among the populations in 1995. Correlations of fruit (r = 0.589, P = 0.011) and seed- set (r = 0.688, P < 0.01) with population pollinator availability were highly significant. In 1995, pollination failure would be the most plausible reason for the variation in reproductive success among the populations. However, pollinator availability was relatively high in all populations in 1996 and 1997. In these years, higher proportions of fruit failed because of antagonistic biological interactions. In the populations with poor pollinator availability in 1995, mean fruit and seed-sets were greater in the long-styled morph than in the short-styled morph. Such between-morph differences are thought to be caused by partial self-compatibility of the long-styled morph and the results of hand pollination experiments support this hypothesis.