Male and Female Reproductive Success in the Hermaphroditic Plant Phlox drummondii

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Abstract
Three sets of reciprocal crosses were performed among 12 plants of the hermaphroditic annual Phlox drummondii, a self-incompatible species. Each plant was used as both a pollen donor and a pollen recipient for estimating both male and female reproductive success. For each cross, pollen germinability, the number of seeds produced, the weight of each seed produced, and the total weight of all seeds were measured. The performances of the 12 plants as females varied significantly for all traits measured for each set of crosses. Among the 12 plants as males, significant variation occurred only for the total seed weight in cross 1 and for the number of seeds and the total seed weight in cross 3. Within cross 3, females discriminated among males, with some males producing more or fewer fruits than expected. Cross set 3 produced fewer and small seeds than cross sets 1 and 2, indicating that resource limitation was a factor. Discrimination among males and resource limitation within cross set 3 may be linked. Correlations for individual traits between the performances of the 12 plants as males and females were generally not significant. Variance among the performances of the plants as females was significantly greater than the variance among males.

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