New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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Fruit and seed production in Berberis darwinii Hook., a shrub recently naturalised in New Zealand

R. B. ALLEN

DSIR Land Resources
Private Bag, Dunedin, New Zealand

J. B. WILSON

Botany Department
Otago University
P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

Abstract The fate of Berberis darwinii flowers and fruit was recorded in 1987 and 1989 near Dunedin, southern New Zealand, and seed germination was tested experimentally. Flower and fruit production were reduced by abortion of both whole inflorescences and individual flowers and fruit, by goat browsing, and by insect damage. Mature flower survival to produce ripe fruit (55% in 1987 and 44% in 1989) was high in relation to most species with similar reproductive ecology but growing within their natural range, as were the proportion of ripe fruit taken by birds (74%, 77%), ripe fruit production (>4000/m2 of canopy projection) and seed germination rate (94%). Seed production and dispersal were subject to few constraints, as has also been shown of other naturalised woody species.

Keywords Berberis darwinii; naturalised plant; fleshy fruit; fruit production; fruit predation; frugivory; fruit dispersal; germination

B91028 ; Received 24 June 1991; accepted 16 December 1991
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1992, Vol. 30: 45-55
0O28-825X/92/3O01-O45 $2.50/0 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 1992

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