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。

Effects of floral display on pollinator behavior and pollen dispersal

Complete understanding of floral function requires the recognition of floral traits at two aspects: floral design and floral display. Floral display, the fundamental unit of plant mating, refers to the number, type and arrangement of the open flowers on the plant in a certain period. Interactions between the flowers on a plant could influence pollinator behaviors on the plant and consequently may govern the mating outcomes. Pollinators prefer large floral displays, which often receive more visitations than smaller displays and thus could facilitate geitonogamous pollination. However, visitations for each flower do not increase with display size directly, suggesting that the variation of display size would balance the benefit of attractiveness against the cost of self-pollination. Flower morphs, such as unisexual or perfect flowers on one plant, may have dif-ferent gender function varying with pollinator preference and when or how much reward is available. Flow-ers on one plant also vary on size, color and reward to affect pollinator’s visitation behavior and minimize the potential self-pollination. Floral display often contains a three-dimensional floral arrangement that could in-fluence pollinator attraction and forage energy at a large scale, and is dynamic in response to the complex pollination and physical environments. Here we briefly review the progress of studies on floral display. It is clear that further studies on the interactions between floral traits and various pollination environments would provide insights into ecological functions of diverse floral displays in angiosperms.