Estimating the costs of allocation to male and female functions in a monoecious cucurbit, Lagenaria siceraria

Abstract

Costs of allocation to male versus female functions were determined for the monecious, annual vine Lagenaria siceraria by removing all flower buds of a given gender and using the additional vegetative growth as a measure of the cost of allocation to that gender (following methods of Silvertown 1987). In this cucurbit, we found significant costs associated with male flower production and fruit production, but not with female flower production. These results are not surprising given the strongly male-biased floral ratio (20 male:1 female) and the large gourds of this species. However, our results are in contrast to Silvertown's study of Cucumis sativus which found no cost to male funtion. In addition, our treatments significantly affected floral sex expression, resulting in increased femaleness for treatment plants. This increase is a consequence of increased lateral branch initiation in these plants and the almost exclusive production of female flowers on lateral branches. Fruit production was associated with a shut-down of subsequent flower production. Given that plant architecture leads to pronounced protandry (on average, 17 male flowers bloom before the first female flower) and that male costs are associated with flower production and the bulk of female costs with fruit production, this shutdown effectively separates male and female functions temporally. We agree with Silvertown's conclusion that this form of protandry is an important factor in the maintenance of cosexuality.