Reproductive trade-offs in a specialized plant/pollinator system involving Asplundia uncinata Harling (Cyclanthaceae) and a derelomine flower weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

The reproductive interactions of a specialized plant/pollinator system involving Asplundia uncinata Harling (Cyclanthaceae) and a derelomine flower weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Derelomini) were studied at La Selva, Costa Rica. The inflorescences of A. uncinata exhibit a suite of cantharophilous characters including a precisely synchronized anthesis, protogyny, thermogenesis, olfactory attraction of visitors via modified staminodes, and narrow interfloral entrances. The weevil pollinators use the inflorescences for feeding, mating, and oviposition. The larvae are detritivorous and develop either in the detaching staminate flowers or, at a more favorable rate, in the rotting infructescences. The rate of infructescence abortion was high and caused by low levels of pollination. Manual pollination treatments yielded significantly higher seed counts than obtained under natural conditions, and furthermore demonstrated the inflorescences' ability to reproduce via geitonogamy. In the longer term, the reproductive benefits of maintaining low levels of pollination may shift away from the weevils and towards the plants via an increase in the size of the pollinator population.     

Flower formation in vitro in a quantitative short-day tobacco: interrelation between photoperiod and infructescence development

The flowering response of thin layers excised from branch internodes of Nicotiana tabacum cv. Maryland Catterton (quantitative short-day plant for induction) was studied under three photoperiodic treatments. The explants were excised from inflorescences bearing flowers only, flowers and green fruits, or from infructescences with green fruits only. The aim of the study was to investigate the post-inductive photoperiodic effects on in vitro flower bud formation in a quantitative short-day tobacco and the relation with infructescence development. Short days quantitatively enhanced the flower bud regeneration capacities of explants in all stages of development, both as number of explants induced to produce flowers and as mean number of flowers per explant. There was no significant difference in flower bud formation on explants of the first two stages, which produced much more flowers than those of the third stage. Observations in planta showed that, during the 20 days separating the second stage from the first stage, there was no significant difference in the number of floral buds and flowers present on the inflorescence; however, the branch internodes lengthened, as did the floral buds and flowers. During the 10 days leading to the third stage, the number of capsules did not change significantly, but a high rate of floral abscission occurred. The present results show that in Nicotiana tabacum cv. Maryland Catterton short day quantitatively controls not only the inductive step of the flowering process, but also affects the capacity to regenerate flower buds during the late post-inductive phases. The responsiveness to the photoperiodic signal decreases only when the plant exhibits only fruits.     

条叶百合种子萌发的研究

研究了不同光、温对条叶百合(Lilium callosum)种子萌发的影响。研究结果表明:(1)避光条件下温度对栽培4年生条叶百合种子萌发影响最大,其种子萌发最适宜温度为25℃, 4~5天开始萌动, 1~2周萌发完全。随着温度的升高或降低其种子萌发率下降。但在5℃时萌发率又有大幅升高, 35℃种子萌发完全受到抑制。(2)同一果序不同位置果实的种子萌发以最下部果实为好,中间果实次之,上部最差。(3)同一果实内中部种子萌发最好,下部种子次之,上部种子最差,上、中、下三部分种子萌发率与其千粒重呈正相关。(4)在相同实验条件下,野生条叶百合与栽培4年生条叶百合种子萌发率一致,但萌发完全时间比栽培条叶百合多14天。(5)贮藏一年后条叶百合种子萌发率没有下降。     

Elucidating the affinities and habitat of ancient, widespread Cyperaceae: Volkeria messelensis gen. et sp. nov., a fossil mapanioid sedge from the Eocene of Europe

The sedges (family Cyperaceae) are an economically and ecologically important monocot group dating back at least to the Paleocene. While modern genera are mostly unknown before the Oligocene, several extinct taxa are recognized as the earliest sedges. Their affinities have been unclear until now, because they are found as isolated, often abraded fruits or endocarps. Exceptionally preserved sedge fossils from the Middle Eocene of Messel, Germany yield more characters for identification. Fossil cyperacean infructescences with in situ pollen are recognized for the first time and show features of the early-divergent mapanioid sedges. Pollen resembles that of tribe Hypolytreae. Comparisons with extant taxa suggest the closest affinities with Hypolytrum and Mapania. However, the Messel fossils represent a distinct taxon, Volkeria messelensis gen. et sp. nov. Without the additional characters of infructescence and pollen, the Messel fruits would have been placed in the extinct genus Caricoidea, a typical Eocene sedge that was widespread across Eurasia. Similarities of fruit structure suggest that Caricoidea was also a mapanioid sedge. Mapanioid sedges are found today in tropical wet forests and swamps, a distribution suggesting that early sedges occupied a similar habitat, unlike many modern sedges, and were not precursors to open grassland vegetation.     

Leaf and infructescence fossils of Alnus (Betulaceae) from the late Eocene of the southeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

Plant fossils from the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP), China are critical to understand not only the diversification history of plants there, but also the paleoenvironmental conditions. Alnus are deciduous trees, mainly distributed in temperate and subtropical regions of Eurasia and North America, and they are well known in the fossil records throughout the Cenozoic in the Northern Hemisphere. We collected numerous well‐preserved Alnus leaf and infructescence fossils from the Lawula Formation (～34.6 Ma with ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating) at the present elevation of 3910 m a.s.l. in the southeastern QTP. Based on detailed morphological comparisons with existing and fossil species, these fossils show closest affinity to Alnus ferdinandi‐coburgii C. K. Schneid., and we refer to these fossils as A. cf. ferdinandi‐coburgii. These specimens comprise the oldest megafossil record of Alnus in the QTP, and provide solid evidence for the distribution of Alnus there as early as the late Eocene. Extant A. ferdinandi‐coburgii is distributed in areas with mean annual temperature values between 9.7 °C and 16.9 °C, and mean annual precipitation values ranging from 896.2 mm to 1161.2 mm; therefore, fossils of A. cf. ferdinandi‐coburgii suggest a much warmer and wetter climate during the late Eocene than today in the southeastern QTP. This finding is consistent with other evidence for continued uplift of the southeastern QTP after the late Eocene that might be due to the eastward extension of the QTP.     

Infructescence size has a larger effect than light environment on the abundance of different arthropod feeding guilds dwelling on the infructescences of a terrestrial bromeliad in a xerophytic forest

Bromeliads are a conspicuous feature of many Neotropical xerophytic forests. Bromelia serra is an understory bromeliad living in xerophytic forests of the Humid Chaco, which shows high phenotypic plasticity when exposed to different environmental conditions. Its infructescences carry many fleshy fruits that are colonized by arthropods from different feeding guilds. We used structural equation modeling and redundancy analysis to evaluate the influences of light environment, plant size, and infructescence size on the abundance of five different feeding guilds of arthropods dwelling on the infructescences (‘fruit-secretion feeders,’ ‘infructescence-detritus feeders,’ ‘predators,’ ‘pulp feeders’ or ‘seed feeders’). Plant size was negatively associated with canopy openness, whereas infructescence size was positively associated with plant size. The abundance of all feeding guilds, except fruit-secretion feeders, were positively associated with infructescence size.     

Nyssidium jiayinense sp. no v. (Cercidiphyllaceae) of the Early Tertiary from north-east China

Nyssidium jiayinense , a new species of the extinct genus JSyssidium , Cercidiphyllaceae, is described from the Palaeocene of north-east China. The infructescences of the fossil are paniculate with 14–22 follicles in individual racemose branches. The follicles occur in pairs with opposite ventral sutures. The follicle wall is three-layered, with a thin epidermis. Mesocarp fibres are longitudinal and endocarp fibres transverse. The distinct features of the infructescence structure differ from all other fossil Cercutiphyllum-like plants and living Cercidiphyllum . The fossil provides new morphological evidence supporting the hypothesis that the follicle clusters in extant Cercidiphyllum evolved by reduction from an elongated inflorescence.