Floral damage induces resistance to florivory in Impatiens capensis

Abstract

Many plants produce defense chemicals that are induced in response to damage. In spite of the tight links between floral tissue and plant reproduction, very little is known about whether floral defenses are induced in response to floral damage. We manipulated Impatiens capensis flowers to determine whether floral damage reduces subsequent florivory, whether it induces anthocyanins or condensed tannins in floral tissues, and whether responses are localized or systemic. We damaged one flower per plant at one of three damage levels (0, 30, or 60 % tissue removal), collected subsequent flowers at set time intervals and branch locations, and measured whole-plant florivory for 3 weeks following damage. We also observed a flower color polymorphism and analyzed responses separately for red- and yellow-flowered plants. Moderate damage to a single flower reduced subsequent whole-plant florivory, but heavy damage did not. Moderate damage to a focal flower also increased anthocyanins in subsequent flowers on the same branch of red-flowered plants, but decreased anthocyanins on parallel-branch flowers of yellow-flowered plants. Damage did not affect floral tannins. Because the reduction in florivory was systemic and induced anthocyanins were not consistently induced systemically, there may be other secondary compounds not measured in this study that were systemically induced, or effects of visual or olfactory cues of damage itself that reduced subsequent florivory. This is the first study demonstrating that damage to a single flower can reduce subsequent whole-plant florivory in the field, indicating that initial damage can have cascading effects on subsequent interactions.