New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts
Pollinator limitation of seed set in Fuchsia perscandens (Onagraceae) on
Banks Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand
B. R. MONTGOMERY*
DAVE KELLY+
JENNY J. LADLEY
Department of Plant and Microbial Sciences
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand
*Present address: Department of Biology,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Abstract Fuchsia perscandens, which has ornithophilous
flowers, may be prone to pollinator limitation on the New Zealand mainland
where pollinating birds are often scarce. To investigate this possibility, we
hand pollinated flowers on plants at two sites on Banks Peninsula and compared
their reproductive success with unmanipulated flowers on the same plants. In
the 1999 season at Buckleys Bay, fruit initiation was 3.3 times higher on
hand-pollinated flowers (66.6% of flowers) than unmanipulated flowers (20.0%),
and fruit set was 2.7 times higher (47.9% versus 18.0%, respectively). In
developed fruit, seed set per fruit was higher for hand-pollinated (70.9% of
ovules) than unmanipulated flowers (48.0%). The results indicate that 34% of
ovules from hand-pollinated flowers, but 9% of ovules from unmanipulated
flowers, set seed. Germination rates did not vary significantly among
treatments. In the 2000 season, at both sites, fruit set of hand-pollinated
flowers was at least 1.7 times higher than unmanipulated flowers (
P =
0.028), and fruit set of unmanipulated flowers did not differ significantly
from that of bagged flowers from which all pollinators were excluded (
P
= 0.98). These results agree with other studies of ornithophilous plants on the
New Zealand mainland and suggest that pollinator limitation is a frequent
consequence of the rarity of honeyeater birds.
Keywords bird pollination; Fuchsia perscandens;
Meliphagidae; Onagraceae; plant reproduction; pollinator limitation
B00054
Received 14 December 2000; accepted 17 July 2001
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 2001, Vol. 39: 559-565
0028-825X/01/3904-0559 $7.00 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 2001
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (662K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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