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Major Evolutionary Transitions in Flowering Plant Reproduction

Edited by Spencer C. H. Barrett

Rufous hummingbird 

Photo: The article by James D. Thomson and Paul Wilson concerns the transition from bee pollination to hummingbird pollination (shown here, a rufous hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus, visiting red-flowered Penstemon cardinalis, Gunnison County, CO; photograph by J. D. Thomson).

See the free introduction: "Major Evolutionary Transitions in Flowering Plant Reproduction: An Overview."

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July 2004

Volume 165, Number 4
Int. J Plant Sci. 165(4):587–593. 2004.
1058-5893/2004/16504-0011$15.00
DOI: 10.1086/386558

Flower Specialization in a Passively Pollinated Monoecious Fig: A Question of Style and Stigma?

Emmanuelle Jousselin,1

Finn Kjellberg, and

Edward Allen Herre

Department of Genetics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa; Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionelle et Evolutive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1919 route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France; and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama

The stability of the mutualism between figs and their pollinator wasps depends on the patterns of seed and wasp production. In Ficus maxima, a passively pollinated monoecious fig, we estimated the correlations among different flower characteristics and determined their relationships with pollination success and pollinator oviposition. Across flowers, stigma length shows an allometric relationship with style length, and style length correlates negatively with style width. Longer-styled flowers are more likely to be pollinated and receive higher pollen loads. This is probably explained by their larger stigmatic surface that increases their chance of receiving the passively dispersed pollen. Consistent with findings in other species, flowers with longer styles are less likely to receive a pollinator's egg. This oviposition pattern is probably explained by a combination of factors: (1) wasps ovipositor are too short to reach flowers with extremely long styles, and 17% of flowers are inaccessible; (2) sometimes, there are too few pollinators to use all accessible flowers; (3) oviposition is more difficult through the long stigmas and thin styles associated with long-styled flowers. Given the patterns of pollinator egg distribution, the style/stigma size relationship in F. maxima appears advantageous for the fig since it leads to preferential pollination of flowers that are not used by wasps. It might reflect flower functional specialization and contribute to the mutualism stability.

Manuscript received August 2003; revised manuscript received November 2003.

Keywords:

allometry, coevolution, mutualism, pollination, style/stigma relationship.

  • 1Author for correspondence; current address: Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique–Centre de Biologie et de Gestion des Populations, Campus International de Baillarguet, CS 30016, 34988 Montferrier sur Lez, France; fax 27-0-12-362-5327; e-mail .

Cited by

Derek W. Dunn, Douglas W. Yu, Jo Ridley, James M. Cook. (2008) Longevity, early emergence and body size in a pollinating fig wasp - implications for stability in a fig-pollinator mutualism. Journal of Animal Ecology 77:5, 927-935
Online publication date: 1-Oct-2008.
CrossRef
Zhang-Hong Shi, Da-Rong Yang, Yan-Qiong Peng. (2006) The style–length of the female florets and their fate in two dioecious species of Xishuangbanna, China. Trees 20:4, 410-415
Online publication date: 24-Jun-2006.
CrossRef
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