Sex-linked photosynthetic physiologic research and the evolutionary ecological analysis in living fossil plant, Ginkgo biloba L.

Ginkgo is an ancient dioecious plant. At present, only Ginkgo biloba L. still exists as a living fossil plant. Botanists have studied it from different aspects in the world due to its unique characteristics. Plant sex physiological ecology is still a knowledge gap in plant ecology. This article measured the photosynthetic traits of adult male and female ginkgoes which grew in suitable environment condition. The result indicated that male and female ginkgoes had similar response to light. The light saturate points (LSP), light compensate point (LCP) and dark respiration rate (Rd) between male and female were also of insignificant differences. However, the net photosynthetic rate (Pn) of female ginkgo was significantly higher than male. From the view of evolution and through comparison with other gymnosperms and angiosperms, the photosynthetic capacity of ginkgo is not obviously lower than that of other plants. It gave us a clue that the photosynthetic capacity was not the direct reason, which restricted the distribution of ginkgo in the Tertiary.