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Attract them anyway: benefits of large, showy flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant species

Reproductive biology of carnivorous plants has largely been studied on species that rely on insects as pollinators and prey, creating potential conflicts. Autogamous pollination, although present in some carnivorous species, has received less attention. In angiosperms, autogamous self-fertilization...

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Autores principales: Salces-Castellano, A., Paniw, M., Casimiro-Soriguer, R., Ojeda, F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4832431/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26977052
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plw017
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author Salces-Castellano, A.
Paniw, M.
Casimiro-Soriguer, R.
Ojeda, F.
author_facet Salces-Castellano, A.
Paniw, M.
Casimiro-Soriguer, R.
Ojeda, F.
author_sort Salces-Castellano, A.
collection PubMed
description Reproductive biology of carnivorous plants has largely been studied on species that rely on insects as pollinators and prey, creating potential conflicts. Autogamous pollination, although present in some carnivorous species, has received less attention. In angiosperms, autogamous self-fertilization is expected to lead to a reduction in flower size, thereby reducing resource allocation to structures that attract pollinators. A notable exception is the carnivorous pyrophyte Drosophyllum lusitanicum (Drosophyllaceae), which has been described as an autogamous selfing species but produces large, yellow flowers. Using a flower removal and a pollination experiment, we assessed, respectively, whether large flowers in this species may serve as an attracting device to prey insects or whether previously reported high selfing rates for this species in peripheral populations may be lower in more central, less isolated populations. We found no differences between flower-removed plants and intact, flowering plants in numbers of prey insects trapped. We also found no indication of reduced potential for autogamous reproduction, in terms of either seed set or seed size. However, our results showed significant increases in seed set of bagged, hand-pollinated flowers and unbagged flowers exposed to insect visitation compared with bagged, non-manipulated flowers that could only self-pollinate autonomously. Considering that the key life-history strategy of this pyrophytic species is to maintain a viable seed bank, any increase in seed set through insect pollinator activity would increase plant fitness. This in turn would explain the maintenance of large, conspicuous flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant.
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spelling pubmed-48324312016-04-20 Attract them anyway: benefits of large, showy flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant species Salces-Castellano, A. Paniw, M. Casimiro-Soriguer, R. Ojeda, F. AoB Plants Research Articles Reproductive biology of carnivorous plants has largely been studied on species that rely on insects as pollinators and prey, creating potential conflicts. Autogamous pollination, although present in some carnivorous species, has received less attention. In angiosperms, autogamous self-fertilization is expected to lead to a reduction in flower size, thereby reducing resource allocation to structures that attract pollinators. A notable exception is the carnivorous pyrophyte Drosophyllum lusitanicum (Drosophyllaceae), which has been described as an autogamous selfing species but produces large, yellow flowers. Using a flower removal and a pollination experiment, we assessed, respectively, whether large flowers in this species may serve as an attracting device to prey insects or whether previously reported high selfing rates for this species in peripheral populations may be lower in more central, less isolated populations. We found no differences between flower-removed plants and intact, flowering plants in numbers of prey insects trapped. We also found no indication of reduced potential for autogamous reproduction, in terms of either seed set or seed size. However, our results showed significant increases in seed set of bagged, hand-pollinated flowers and unbagged flowers exposed to insect visitation compared with bagged, non-manipulated flowers that could only self-pollinate autonomously. Considering that the key life-history strategy of this pyrophytic species is to maintain a viable seed bank, any increase in seed set through insect pollinator activity would increase plant fitness. This in turn would explain the maintenance of large, conspicuous flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant. Oxford University Press 2016-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC4832431/ /pubmed/26977052 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plw017 Text en Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Salces-Castellano, A.
Paniw, M.
Casimiro-Soriguer, R.
Ojeda, F.
Attract them anyway: benefits of large, showy flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant species
title Attract them anyway: benefits of large, showy flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant species
title_full Attract them anyway: benefits of large, showy flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant species
title_fullStr Attract them anyway: benefits of large, showy flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant species
title_full_unstemmed Attract them anyway: benefits of large, showy flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant species
title_short Attract them anyway: benefits of large, showy flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant species
title_sort attract them anyway: benefits of large, showy flowers in a highly autogamous, carnivorous plant species
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4832431/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26977052
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plw017
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