Abstract
The flower heliotropism of Anemone rivularis (Ranunculaceae) was investigated on the Yulong Snow Mountain, near Lijiang in the northwest of the Yunnan province of China. We discovered that tepals in this species drive the peduncles to track the sun, and that this flower heliotropism was likely an adaptation for parental environmental effects on reproductive fitness. In brief, A. rivularis flowers retained sun-tracking behavior following removal of pistils and stamens, but lost heliotropic movement, if tepals were removed. Light is the major factor to affect floral heliotropism, the tepal-received light signal was in the blue frequency. Meanwhile, the peduncles were found to bend significantly on the top portion of both control flowers and those lacking pistils and stamens, but instead of keeping a vertical peduncle orientation in flowers with tepals removed. Furthermore, the floral temperature was steadier, and seed sizes and numbers were greater for control flowers than for flowers with tepals removed. Therefore, we conclude that the tepals trigger the flower heliotropism in A. rivularis and play an important role on not only increasing but also keeping optimal thermal condition of flower interior. We further conclude that flower heliotropism enhances the pollen viability and seed production, resulting in higher reproductive success for this alpine species.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Wei Zhou and Chun-Fang Li for their kind assistance with experiments and statistics. We also thank Dr. Zachary M. Larson-Rabin from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, for revising an earlier version of this manuscript. This study was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, No. 2007CB411603).
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Zhang, S., Ai, HL., Yu, WB. et al. Flower heliotropism of Anemone rivularis (Ranunculaceae) in the Himalayas: effects on floral temperature and reproductive fitness. Plant Ecol 209, 301–312 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9739-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9739-4