A Preliminary Study of the Pollination Ecology of Pedicularis (Scrophulariaceae) in Japan

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Abstract
An introductory study of the pollination ecology of six Japanese species ofPedicularisconducted in 1982 and 1983 indicated a close parallel between characteristics of floral mechanisms in Japan and those previously investigated in North America. Floral color, floral form, total dissolved solids in floral nectar, and polinator behavior on flowers of Japanese species are similar to those of North American species. Blooming phenology of Japanese species also corresponds to the North American sequence of long‐tongued, nectar‐foraging queen bumblebees (Bombus Latr.)pollinating nectariferous, earlier‐blooming species nototribically and short‐tongued, pollen‐foraging workers pollinating nectarless, rostrate flowers of later‐blooming ones sternotribically. Electrofocus analysis of peroxidase systems in two Japanese species indicated considerable intrapopulational heterozygosity. Nectar component analysis of two transboreal species indicated intraspecific differences in kinds of sugars between widely disjunct Japanese and North American populations. A tentative conclusion is that the Japanese and North American Pedicularis floras have evolved in a parallel manner from Himalayan migrants, while their transboreal elements are in process of vicariant diversification.