Tavera Arturo, de Santiago-Hernández Martín H, Rosas-Guerrero Víctor, González Clementina, Cuevas Eduardo
Facultad de Biología, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Ciudad Universitaria, Francisco J. Múgica s/n, Morelia, 58030, Michoacán, México.
Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica, Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8701, San José de la Huerta, Morelia, 58190, Michoacán, México.
Am J Bot. 2025 Jul;112(7):e70067. doi: 10.1002/ajb2.70067. Epub 2025 Jun 26.
Pollination syndromes are suites of floral traits associated with the most effective functional group of pollinators. Particular floral traits may not necessarily preclude visitation by different visitor guilds that could also contribute to plant reproduction. The genus Salvia comprises ca. 1000 species with floral traits almost exclusively associated with bee or hummingbird pollination syndromes. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of their floral visitors has rarely been evaluated. Here, the pollination effectiveness of floral visitors in five Salvia species was analyzed to assess the reliability of floral syndromes.
The contribution to seed production of the most frequent floral visitors of Salvia species with melittophilous, ornithophilous, and mixed phenotypes was evaluated through single-visit experiments. In addition, the relationship between floral morphological traits and pollinator effectiveness was explored using principal component analysis to test the reliability of floral syndromes.
Despite multiple floral visitor guilds to the plants, bees and hummingbirds were the most effective pollinators of plants with melittophilous and ornithophilous pollination syndrome, respectively. These two functional groups effectively pollinated the plant species with mixed floral traits. Salvia species pollinated by the same functional group were closer in the multivariate ordination space.
Even when floral syndromes precisely predict the most effective pollinators in Salvia, secondary pollinators also play a crucial role in plant sexual reproduction, especially for plant species with mixed floral phenotypes. This study highlights the importance of evaluating the effectiveness of floral visitors to assess the reliability of floral syndromes.
传粉综合征是与最有效的传粉者功能群相关的一系列花部特征。特定的花部特征不一定排除其他不同访客群体的访问，而这些群体也可能有助于植物繁殖。鼠尾草属约有1000个物种，其花部特征几乎仅与蜜蜂或蜂鸟传粉综合征相关。然而，很少有人评估其花部访客的有效性。在此，分析了5种鼠尾草属植物花部访客的传粉有效性，以评估花部综合征的可靠性。
通过单次访问实验评估了具有嗜蜂性、嗜鸟性和混合表型的鼠尾草属植物最常见花部访客对种子生产的贡献。此外，并使用主成分分析探讨花部形态特征与传粉者有效性之间的关系，以测试花部综合征的可靠性。
尽管植物有多个花部访客群体，但蜜蜂和蜂鸟分别是具有嗜蜂性和嗜鸟性传粉综合征植物的最有效传粉者。这两个功能群有效地为具有混合花部特征的植物物种传粉。由相同功能群传粉的鼠尾草属植物在多变量排序空间中更为接近。
即使花部综合征能准确预测鼠尾草属中最有效的传粉者，次要传粉者在植物有性繁殖中也起着关键作用，尤其是对于具有混合花部表型的植物物种。本研究强调了评估花部访客有效性以评估花部综合征可靠性的重要性。
