Phenotypic gender variation within inflorescences of the protogynous species Helleborus foetidus L. (Ranunculaceae) |
| |
Authors: | P Guitián |
| |
Institution: | 1. Departamento de Botánica, Universidade de Santiago, Campus Sur, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, A Coru?a, Galicia, Spain
|
| |
Abstract: | In the protogynous species H. foetidus, I investigated if investment in sexual structures and seed set shows any trend with position in the flower-opening sequence.
In four-flower inflorescences, stamen number decreased with flower position i.e. was highest for the earliest flower and lowest
for the latest flower. Ovule number was significantly higher in the latest flower. Stamen and ovule number did not covary,
indicating that there is no structural gender trade-off in this species. Seed set (i.e. percentage of ovules producing seed)
did not differ between control plants and pollen-supplemented plants and the effect of pollen supplementation did not vary
among positions. Seed set showed marginally significant differences between control plants and simulated-herbivory plants,
but the effects of this treatment varied significantly among positions. Significant among-position variation in seed set was
observed in the control plants but not the simulated-herbivory plants. Seed set of latest-opening flowers of simulated-herbivory
plants was significantly higher than that of latest-opening flowers of control plants. H. foetidus support Brunet and Charlesworth's (1995) prediction that in plants with protogynous flowers, later-opening flowers should
specialize as female flowers, at least under conditions of high resource availability. |
| |
Keywords: | Helleborus foetidus phenotypic gender within inflorescence variation protogyny |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|