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Large and abundant flowers increase indirect costs of corollas: a study of coflowering sympatric Mediterranean species of contrasting flower size

  • Physiological ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Large floral displays receive more pollinator visits but involve higher production and maintenance costs. This can result in indirect costs which may negatively affect functions like reproductive output. In this study, we explored the relationship between floral display and indirect costs in two pairs of coflowering sympatric Mediterranean Cistus of contrasting flower size. We hypothesized that: (1) corolla production entails direct costs in dry mass, N and P, (2) corollas entail significant indirect costs in terms of fruit set and seed production, (3) indirect costs increase with floral display, (4) indirect costs are greater in larger-flowered sympatric species, and (5) local climatic conditions influence indirect costs. We compared fruit set and seed production of petal-removed flowers and unmanipulated control flowers and evaluated the influence of mean flower number and mean flower size on relative fruit and seed gain of petal-removed and control flowers. Fruit set and seed production were significantly higher in petal-removed flowers in all the studied species. A positive relationship was found between relative fruit gain and mean individual flower size within species. In one pair of species, fruit gain was higher in the large-flowered species, as was the correlation between fruit gain and mean number of open flowers. In the other pair, the correlation between fruit gain and mean flower size was also higher in the large-flowered species. These results reveal that Mediterranean environments impose significant constraints on floral display, counteracting advantages of large flowers from the pollination point of view with increased indirect costs of such flowers.

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Acknowledgments

A. Traveset and J. M. Iriondo provided constructive comments during earlier versions of the manuscript. We also thank to R. Aceves, E. Barahona, F. Castellanos, C. de Castro, J. Iglesias and H. Lantarón for fieldwork support. We are also grateful to Y. Valiñani and E. Galisteo for lab assistance and Lori J. De Hond for linguistic assistance. This study was supported by CONSOLIDER MONTES project (CSD2008-00040) of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. A.L.T. held a PDI fellowship at Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain. The experiments comply with the current laws of Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Tulipán s/n, Móstoles, 28933, Madrid, Spain

    Alberto L. Teixido & Fernando Valladares

  2. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, MNCN-CSIC, Serrano 115 dpdo, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Fernando Valladares

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  1. Alberto L. Teixido
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  2. Fernando Valladares
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Correspondence to Alberto L. Teixido.

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Communicated by Christina Caruso.

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Teixido, A.L., Valladares, F. Large and abundant flowers increase indirect costs of corollas: a study of coflowering sympatric Mediterranean species of contrasting flower size. Oecologia 173, 73–81 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-013-2609-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-013-2609-8

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