New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts
Do floral syndromes predict specialisation in plant pollination systems? Assessment of diurnal and nocturnal pollination of Escallonia myrtoidea
Carlos E. Valdivia
Hermann M. Niemeyer
Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas
Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad de Chile
Casilla 653
Santiago, Chile
niemeyer@abulafia.ciencias.uchile.cl
Abstract Pollination syndromes lead to questions
concerning the role of different suites of pollinators on the
pollination success of plants. Escallonia myrtoidea exhibits
floral traits associated with pollination by diurnal butterflies;
however, flowers remain open during the night and, thus, may also be
pollinated by nocturnal moths. We assessed frequency of pollinator
visits and pollination success in flowers exposed to diurnal and
nocturnal pollinators in a factorial design. We also assessed
pollinator dependency and limitations for seed set through hand self-
and hand cross-pollination tests. Flowers were visited mainly by bees
rather than by butterflies or moths. Neither diurnal nor nocturnal
pollinators had any effect on seed set over the seed set of
always-bagged inflorescences, while hand cross-pollinated flowers
produced significantly more seeds than hand self-pollinated flowers or
flowers exposed to diurnal and/or nocturnal pollinators. Thus, E. myrtoidea,
a tree strongly pollinator-limited for seed setting, exhibited a lack
of coupling among floral traits, pollinators, and reproductive success.
Keywords floral traits; butterflies; moths; pollination success
B05027; Received 29 June 2005; accepted 21 March 2006; Online publication date 2 May 2006
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 2006, Vol. 44: 135–141
0028–825X/06/4402–0135 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2006
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