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Fruit abortion in the Chihuahuan-Desert endemic cactus Opuntia microdasys

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Abstract

Resource and pollen limitation, as well as pollen/ovule incompatibility, have been proposed as causes to explain fruit abortion. To assess whether abortion in Opuntia microdasys was due to resource and/or pollen limitation and could therefore be reversed fruit set and seed set were studied using controlled pollination experiments on 60 plants that had been randomly assigned a combination of watering and fertilization treatments. On the other hand, to test whether fruit abortion was irreversible, due to pollen/ovule incompatibility, we examined the reproductive biology of the species. This included observations on floral phenology, nectar production, flower visitors, numbers of pollen grains and ovules, and self-pollination experiments. Results showed that O. microdasys is a fully self-incompatible species and its floral biology and the activity of the main pollinator allow constant deposition of incompatible pollen onto stigmas, which may contribute to fruit abortion. Reproductive success was limited by nutrients and pollen, but the fruit set increased only by 58%, compared to 47% of the control, after the experimental addition of pollen, nutrients and water. The magnitude of pollen and resource limitation suggests that similar levels of abortion will be present in good as well as in bad years. Selfing as well as incompatibility between ramets from the same clone and between closely related plants seem plausible candidates to explain the large proportion of fruit abortion, and experimental cross pollination between genotypes identified through molecular markers are necessary to fully understand the considerable abortion rate that remains unexplained after pollen and resource addition. Interestingly, the possible reason why the abortion of energetically expensive fruits has not been eliminated by natural selection is that the aborted fruits are propagules able to root and produce new plants with the same genotype of the mother. Abortion would have a dramatic effect on cross-fertilized genotypes because they result in zero fitness, but it would have a positive effect on the fitness of the maternal genotype because a clonal offspring is produced. Evidently, the exact fitness consequences to the maternal plant will depend on the differences in survival and reproduction of these different offspring types.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the logistical support received from the staff of the Desert Laboratory INECOL, and for the assistance with fieldwork provided by K. Herrera, G. Muro, J. Sánchez, O. Montenegro and R. Lara. M. Franco and V. Sosa-Fernández made useful suggestions on the manuscript, Bianca Delfosse translated an earlier version of this article from Spanish. This study is part of the doctoral studies of HHP at the Instituto de Ecología, A.C. This research was funded by CONACYT project 4126P-N9608 awarded to CM. The participation of MCM was funded by project PAPIIT-DGAPA-UNAM IN205500, awarded to MCM. The participation of HP was funded by a graduate scholarship awarded by CONACYT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología A.C., Km 2.5 carretera antigua a Coatepec, Apartado Postal 63, 91000, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Hugo H. Piña & Carlos Montaña

  2. Departamento de Ecología de la Biodiversidad, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70-275, 04510, México, D.F., Mexico

    María del Carmen Mandujano

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  1. Hugo H. Piña
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  2. Carlos Montaña
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  3. María del Carmen Mandujano
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Correspondence to Carlos Montaña.

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Piña, H.H., Montaña, C. & Mandujano, M. Fruit abortion in the Chihuahuan-Desert endemic cactus Opuntia microdasys . Plant Ecol 193, 305–313 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9269-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9269-x

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