Journal
JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
Volume 25, Issue 3, Pages 574-583Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2012.02455.x
Keywords
evolutionary transition; heterostyly; natural selection; Oxalis alpina; pollen flow
Categories
Funding
- Posgrado en Ciencias Biologicas
- UNAM
- CONACYT [47858-Q]
- University of California Institute for Mexico
- United States (UC MEXUS)
- Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico [PAPIIT IN217803]
- Office of Integrative Activities
- Office Of The Director [963441] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Although the spatial separation of sexual organs within a flower (herkogamy) has been interpreted as a mechanism that promotes efficient pollen transfer, there have been few attempts to relate variation in herkogamy to probabilities of pollen flow. Here, we used a heterostylous species with variation in reciprocal herkogamy to test this hypothesis. We measured legitimate and illegitimate pollen flow with fluorescent dyes in four selected populations of Oxalis alpina corresponding to the extremes of a previously reported evolutionary gradient from tristyly to distyly. After the breakdown of tristyly, the observed increment in reciprocal herkogamy between the long and short morphs was associated with a 30% increase in the proportion of dye received from compatible illegitimate pollinations. In all populations, the most likely effective pollen vectors were two Heterosarus bee species. Our results support the adaptive value of reciprocal herkogamy in promoting efficient pollen transfer in heterostylous species.
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