Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR CNRS 5175, Montpellier, France.
J Evol Biol. 2010 May;23(5):977-86. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.01968.x. Epub 2010 Mar 19.
This study documents the flowering phenology and its potential consequences on a nursery pollination mutualism between a dioecious plant, in which honest male plants, but not cheating females, allow the specific pollinator to reproduce within inflorescences. Very few pollinators were found to emerge during plant anthesis, leading to a low (if any) potential benefit through pollen dispersal. This opens the question why male plants do not also cheat their pollinators. Female plants flowered late in the season, when many males had just achieved their own anthesis, which increased the efficiency of pollen transfer. Finally, some late-flowering males reached their anthesis simultaneously with females, which open the possibility for pollinator to choose between honest males and cheating females. Nevertheless, female plants were found to produce fruits, even though fruit production was limited by pollen (and pollinator) supply, meaning that cheating was not entirely retaliated by the mutualistic partner.
本研究记录了雌雄异株植物的花期物候及其对苗圃传粉互惠关系的潜在影响，在这种关系中，诚实的雄株而不是欺骗的雌株允许特定的传粉者在花序内繁殖。在植物开花期间，发现很少有传粉者出现，这导致通过花粉传播获得的潜在益处很低（如果有的话）。这就提出了一个问题，即为什么雄株也不欺骗它们的传粉者。雌株在季节后期开花，此时许多雄株刚刚完成自己的开花，这提高了花粉转移的效率。最后，一些晚开花的雄株与雌株同时开花，这为传粉者提供了在诚实的雄株和欺骗的雌株之间做出选择的可能性。然而，尽管果实的产生受到花粉（和传粉者）供应的限制，但仍发现雌株能够产生果实，这意味着欺骗并没有被互惠伴侣完全报复。
