Flower and Fruit Biology in Southern Spanish Mediterranean Shrublands

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Flower and fruit biology was studied in a coastal, southern Spanish scrub community composed of 30 plant taxa. Data on breeding systems; rewards offered to vectors; flowers, fruit, and seed sizes; and fruiting intensities are reported. Most taxa in the community have insect-pollinated, hermaphroditic flowers that are largely unspecialized in morphology. Dioecious species are relatively well represented (27% of the total), as are vertebrate-dispersed species (43%). Bagging experiments demonstrated that pollinators were required for maximum fruit production, but the existence of incompatibility systems was not tested. When the relationship between fruiting intensity and the ability to perform vegetative regeneration was investigated, it was found that sprouting taxa had, on average, lower fruit production than those that were unable to sprout. Low fruit production is discussed in relation to reproductive allocation trade-offs.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: