Abstract
Sexual and asexual reproduction may occur simultaneously in some plant species. Under certain environmental conditions asexual reproduction is predominant, which generates ecological consequences on sexual fecundity. In this context, we studied the reproductive ecology of the creeping clonal cactus Echinopsis thelegona in La Bodega (Salta, Argentina), where low fruit and seed production was preliminarily observed. Specifically, we studied the flower availability, fruit and seed production, reproductive system, floral visitors and effects of neighbor ramets on reproductive success. The number of available flowers per day was low, and fruit production was low or null as well. Echinopsis thelegona is self-incompatible. Although its flowers have sphingophilous traits, we did not find evidence of moths visiting them. Only native and exotic bees visited the flowers of this species, though with a low number of visits. Therefore, nocturnal visitors were not registered as pollinators of E. thelegona, perhaps because of their low local abundances. On the other hand, bees behaved as inefficient pollinators of E. thelegona due to their foraging behavior, which moves pollen within individuals. A pollen-addition experiment revealed that there is no fruit production at short distances among ramets. Therefore, the combination of self-incompatibility, low flower production and low local abundance of pollinators could account for the low fruit production observed in this species. This finding suggests that populations of E. thelegona persist by clonality and that they tend toward the loss of sexuality.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the handling editor, Marlies Sazima, and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that have improved this manuscript. The authors also thank Martín Pekarek for the permission to carry out research at La Bodega ranch. We are grateful to Silvia Sühring for reviewing the manuscript. Nora Frizza assisted with the English version of this manuscript. The research was funded by CIUNSalta (Grant Nos. 1306 and 1666) and FONCYT (Grant Nos. 36822 and 1492).
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Ortega-Baes, P., Gorostiague, P. Extremely reduced sexual reproduction in the clonal cactus Echinopsis thelegona . Plant Syst Evol 299, 785–791 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-013-0761-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-013-0761-6