Revista de Biología Tropical ISSN Impreso: 0034-7744 ISSN electrónico: 2215-2075

OAI: https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/oai
High selfing capability and low pollinator visitation in the hummingbird-pollinated epiphyte Pitcairnia heterophylla (Bromeliaceae) at a Costa Rican mountain forest
PDF
HTML

Keywords

breeding system
hummingbird pollination
specialized pollination
reproductive assurance
selfing
autogamy
Pitcairnioideae
sistema de apareamiento
polinización por colibríes
polinización especializada
aseguramiento reproductivo
autofecundación
autogamia
Pitcairnioideae

How to Cite

Rios, L. D., & Cascante-Marín, A. (2017). High selfing capability and low pollinator visitation in the hummingbird-pollinated epiphyte Pitcairnia heterophylla (Bromeliaceae) at a Costa Rican mountain forest. Revista De Biología Tropical, 65(2), 735–743. https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v65i2.25948

Abstract

Pitcairnioideae is the second most diverse subfamily of bromeliads (Bromeliaceae), a group exclusive to tropical regions of the New World. Pitcairnioid bromeliads have floral traits assumed to promote outcrossing through biotic pollination systems; however, the reproductive biology of most of the species of this group has not been documented. Pitcairnia heterophylla is an epiphytic (seldom saxicolous) bromeliad occurring from Southern Mexico, into the Northern Andes. We studied the pollination and breeding system of P. heterophylla in an epiphytic population at a mountain forest in Costa Rica from January to April 2013. We performed hand pollination experiments (agamospermy, autonomous self-pollination, hand self-pollination and hand cross-pollination) on 89 flowers from 23 individuals (3-6 flowers per individual) in 2013 flowering season. Nectar production was measured on 18 unvisited flowers of six individuals with a hand-held refractometer. Simultaneously, floral visitors were recorded on eight individuals with trail cameras for a total of 918 hours (115 ± 52 hours per individual, mean ± SE). Under natural conditions, seed set (540.4 ± 55.2) was similar to manually selfed flowers (516.3 ± 41.5) and autonomously selfed flowers (521.1 ± 29.0), but lower to manually outcrossed flowers (670.2 ± 31.3). The flowers of P. heterophylla are self-compatible, capable of autonomous pollination, and non-agamospermous. Intrafloral self-pollination is facilitated by adichogamy and lack of floral herkogamy. The scentless red flowers of P. heterophylla with tubular corollas and nectar production suggested ornithophilic pollination which was confirmed by video recording of 46 hummingbird visits. The most common floral visitor was the short-billed hummingbird Lampornis calolaemus which accounted for 78 % of the visits. However, the visitation rate during the flowering season was low (0.6 visits per day per plant). Selfing in P. heterophylla might be explained as a mechanism of reproductive assurance and to reduce interspecific pollen flow with taxonomically unrelated plants.

https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v65i2.25948
PDF
HTML

References

Ackerman, J. D. (1986). Coping with the epiphytic existence: pollination strategies. Selbyana, 9(1), 52-60.

Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1-48. http://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01

Benzing, D. H. (2000). Bromeliaceae: profile of an adaptive radiation (1st ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bush, S. P., & Beach, J. H. (1995). Breeding systems of epiphytes in a tropical montane wet forest. Selbyana, 16(2), 155-158.

Bush, S. P., & Guilbeau, J. E. (2009). Early autonomous selfing in the hummingbird-pollinated epiphyte Pitcairnia brittoniana (Bromeliaceae). Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society, 136(3), 313-321.

Cascante-Marín, A., Jong, M. De, Borg, E. D., Oostermeijer, J. G. B., Wolf, J. H. D., & den Nijs, J. C. M. (2006). Reproductive strategies and colonizing ability of two sympatric epiphytic bromeliads in a tropical premontane area. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 167(6), 1187-1195. doi: http://doi.org/10.1086/507871

Cascante-Marín, A., Oostermeijer, G., Wolf, J., & Fuchs, E. J. (2014). Genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of an epiphytic bromeliad in Costa Rican montane secondary forest patches. Biotropica, 46(4), 425-432. doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12119

Charlesworth, D. (2006). Evolution of plant breeding systems. Current Biology, 16(17), R726-735. doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.07.068

Eckert, C. G., Samis, K., & Dart, S. (2006). Reproductive assurance and the evolution of uniparental reproduction in flowering plants. In L. Harder & S. C. H. Barrett (Eds.), Ecology and Evolution of Flowers (pp. 181-203). New York: Oxford University Press.

Faegri, K., & van der Pijl, L. (1979). The Principles of Pollinaton Ecology (3rd ed.). London, UK: Pergamon Press.

Feinsinger, P. (1978). Ecological interactions between plants and hummingbirds in a successional tropical community. Ecological Monographs, 48(3), 269-287. doi: http://doi.org/10.2307/2937231

Feinsinger, P., Tiebout, H.M. III, & Young, B. E. (1991). Do tropical bird-pollinated plants exhibit density-dependent interactions? field experiments. Ecology, 72(6), 1953-1963. doi: http://doi.org/10.2307/1941550

Fenster, C. B., & Martén-Rodríguez, S. (2007). Reproductive assurance and the evolution of pollination specialization. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 168(2), 215-228. doi: http://doi.org/10.1086/509647

Fumero-Cabán, J. J., & Meléndez-Ackerman, E. J. (2007). Relative pollination effectiveness of floral visitors of Pitcairnia angustifolia (Bromeliaceae). American Journal of Botany, 94(3), 419-424. doi: http://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.94.3.419

Fumero-Cabán, J. J., & Meléndez-Ackerman, E. J. (2012). Effects of nectar robbing on pollinator behavior and plant reproductive success of Pitcairnia angustifolia (Bromeliaceae). Plant Species Biology, 28(3), 224-234. doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-1984.2012.00388.x

Givnish, T. J., Millam, K. C., Berry, P. E., & Sytsma, K. J. (2007). Phylogeny, adaptive radiation, and historical biogeography of Bromeliaceae inferred from ndhF sequence data. Aliso, 23, 3-26. doi: http://doi.org/10.5642/aliso.20072301.04

Goodwillie, C., Kalisz, S., & Eckert, C. G. (2005). The evolutionary enigma of mixed mating systems in plans: occurrence, theoretical explanations, and empirical evidence. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 36(1), 47-79. doi: http://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.36.091704.175539

Holsinger, K. E. (2000). Reproductive systems and evolution in vascular plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 97(13), 7037-7042. doi: http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.97.13.7037

Hothorn, T., Bretz, F., & Westfall, P. (2008). Simultaneous inference in general parametric models. Biometrical Journal, 50(3), 346-363.

Jain, S. K. (1976). The evolution of inbreeding in plants. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 7, 469-495. doi: http://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.es.07.110176.002345

Janzen, D. H. (1967). Synchronization of sexual reproduction of trees within the dry season in Central America. Evolution, 21(3), 620-637. doi: http://doi.org/10.2307/2406621

Krömer, T., Kessler, M., Lohaus, G., & Schmidt-Lebuhn, A. N. (2008). Nectar sugar composition and concentration in relation to pollination syndromes in Bromeliaceae. Plant Biology, 10(4), 502-11. doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1438-8677.2008.00058.x

Levin, D. A. (1972). Competition for pollinator service: a stimulus for the evolution of autogamy. Evolution, 26(4), 668-669.

Lloyd, D. G. (1992). Self- and cross-fertilization in plants. II. The selection of self-fertilization. International Journal of Plant Biology, 153(3), 370-380.

Lloyd, D. G., & Schoen, D. J. (1992). Self- and Cross- fertilization in Plants. I. Functional dimensions. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 153(3), 358-369.

Matallana, G., Godinho, M. A. S., Guilherme, F. A. G., Belisario, M., Coser, T. S., & Wendt, T. (2010). Breeding systems of Bromeliaceae species: evolution of selfing in the context of sympatric occurrence. Plant Systematics and Evolution, 289(1), 57-65. doi: http://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-010-0332-z

R Development Core Team (2015). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.

Ramírez, N., & Brito, Y. (1990). Reproductive biology of a tropical palm swamp community in the Venezuelan Llanos. American Journal of Botany, 77(10), 1260-1271.

Ramírez-Morillo, I. M., Chi-May, F., Carnevali, G., & May-Pat, F. (2009). It takes two to tango: self incompatibility in the bromeliad Tillandsia streptophylla (Bromeliaceae) in Mexico. Revista de Biología Tropical, 57(3), 761-770.

Reinert, F., Russo, C. A. M., & Salles, L. O. (2003). The evolution of CAM in the subfamily Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 80(2), 261-268. doi: http://doi.org/10.1046/j.1095-8312.2003.00238.x

Sánchez, J., Durán, F., & Vega, G. (2008). Diversidad de plantas, mamíferos y mariposas en los Cerros de la Carpintera, Costa Rica. San José: Museo Nacional de Costa Rica.

Smith, L. B., & Downs, R. J. (1974). Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae). Flora Neotropica, 14(1), 1-609. http://doi.org/

Stiles, F. G. (1975). Ecology, flowering phenology, and hummingbird pollination of some Costa Rican Heliconia species. Ecology, 56(2), 285-301. http://doi.org/10.2307/1934961

Wendt, T., Canela, M. B., Gelli de Faria, A. P., & Rios, R. I. (2001). Reproductive biology and natural hybridization between two endemic species of Pitcairnia (Bromeliaceae). American Journal of Botany, 88(10), 1760-1767.

Wendt, T., Canela, M. B. F., Klein, D. E., & Rios, R. I. (2002). Selfing facilitates reproductive isolation among three sympatric species of Pitcairnia (Bromeliaceae). Plant Systematics and Evolution, 232, 201-212. doi: http://doi.org/10.1007/s006060200043

Willmer, P. (2011). Pollination and Floral Ecology. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Zotz, G. (2013). The systematic distribution of vascular epiphytes – a critical update. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 171(3), 453-481. doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/boj.12010

Comments

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright (c) 2017 Revista de Biología Tropical

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.