TY - JOUR
T1 - Reproductive biology of three sympatric endangered plants endemic to Florida scrub
AU - Evans, Margaret E.K.
AU - Menges, Eric S.
AU - Gordon, Doria R.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Scott Bergen, Dawn Berry, Sonia Honeydew, George Landman, Margaret Mayfield, Helen Packham, Helen Violi, Joyce Voneman, and Rebecca Yahr for field assistance. Maria Clauss, Eric Dyreson, Jill Miller, Robert Steidl, and D. Lawrence Venable advised our statistical analyses. We thank Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio for sharing unpublished data, and Susan Kephart, Michael S. Singer, Mark Schwartz, and one anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was funded by The Nature Conservancy's Ecosystem Research Program, the Florida Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, the Florida Division of Forestry, and Archbold Biological Station.
PY - 2003/6
Y1 - 2003/6
N2 - We investigated the reproductive biology of three plants endemic to rosemary scrub habitats on the Lake Wales Ridge of Florida, USA. We used hand-pollination experiments and observations of flowers and their insect visitors to determine their mating systems and pollination. Fruit or seed set after self pollination was 94, 97, and 8% of fruit or seed set after cross pollination in Eryngium cuneifolium (Apiaceae), Hypericum cumulicola (Hypericaceae), and Liatris ohlingerae (Asteraceae) respectively, indicating that the first two are self-compatible and the last is obligately outcrossing. All three depend on insects for seed production (4-7% fruit or seed set without insects). Diverse insects visit flowers of E. cuneifolium (101 species recorded), whereas L. ohlingerae is visited predominantly by butterflies and H. cumulicola by one genus of bees (Dialictus, Halictidae). Our data indicate pollinator visitation does not currently limit seed production in E. cuneifolium or H. cumulicola, but does in L. ohlingerae. Despite the features they share (habit, habitat, disturbance regime), we found unique aspects of these species' reproductive biology yielding unique risks to population viability. We suggest that multispecies recovery plans must consider several aspects of the biology of species with superficial similarities to be successful.
AB - We investigated the reproductive biology of three plants endemic to rosemary scrub habitats on the Lake Wales Ridge of Florida, USA. We used hand-pollination experiments and observations of flowers and their insect visitors to determine their mating systems and pollination. Fruit or seed set after self pollination was 94, 97, and 8% of fruit or seed set after cross pollination in Eryngium cuneifolium (Apiaceae), Hypericum cumulicola (Hypericaceae), and Liatris ohlingerae (Asteraceae) respectively, indicating that the first two are self-compatible and the last is obligately outcrossing. All three depend on insects for seed production (4-7% fruit or seed set without insects). Diverse insects visit flowers of E. cuneifolium (101 species recorded), whereas L. ohlingerae is visited predominantly by butterflies and H. cumulicola by one genus of bees (Dialictus, Halictidae). Our data indicate pollinator visitation does not currently limit seed production in E. cuneifolium or H. cumulicola, but does in L. ohlingerae. Despite the features they share (habit, habitat, disturbance regime), we found unique aspects of these species' reproductive biology yielding unique risks to population viability. We suggest that multispecies recovery plans must consider several aspects of the biology of species with superficial similarities to be successful.
KW - Eryngium cuneifolium
KW - Florida scrub
KW - Hypericum cumulicola
KW - Liatris ohlingerae
KW - Mating system
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U2 - 10.1016/S0006-3207(02)00293-8
DO - 10.1016/S0006-3207(02)00293-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0037409314
SN - 0006-3207
VL - 111
SP - 235
EP - 246
JO - Biological Conservation
JF - Biological Conservation
IS - 2
ER -