Among-individual variation in flowering phenology affects flowering synchrony and mating opportunity.

Premise: The timing and pattern of a plant's flowering can have important consequences for reproductive success. Variation in flowering phenology may influence the number of prospective mates, the risk of mating with lower quality individuals, and the likelihood of self-pollination. Here we use a common garden experiment to explore within- and among-population variation in phenology.

Pollen transport: Illuminating a key mechanism of disassortative pollination.

Floral sexual polymorphisms have evolved repeatedly in angiosperms and are thought to reduce self-pollination and increase pollen export. Using a powerful pollen-labeling technique, quantum dots, a new study shows that pollen placement on pollinator bodies plays a critical role in disassortative pollination.

Selfing rates vary with floral display, pollinator visitation and plant density in natural populations of Mimulus ringens.

Variation in selfing rates within and among populations of hermaphroditic flowering plants can strongly influence the evolution of reproductive strategies and the genetic structure of populations. This intraspecific variation in mating patterns may reflect both genetic and ecological factors, but the relative importance of these factors remains poorly understood. Here, we explore how selfing in 13 natural populations of the perennial wildflower Mimulus ringens is influenced by (a) pollinator visitation, an ecological factor, and (b) floral display, a trait with a genetic component that also responds to environmental variation.

Edge effects and mating patterns in a bumblebee-pollinated plant.

Researchers have long assumed that plant spatial location influences plant reproductive success and pollinator foraging behaviour. For example, many flowering plant populations have small, linear or irregular shapes that increase the proportion of plants on the edge, which may reduce mating opportunities through both male and female function. Additionally, plants that rely on pollinators may be particularly vulnerable to edge effects if those pollinators exhibit restricted foraging and pollen carryover is limited.

Pollination intensity and paternity in flowering plants.

Background: Siring success plays a key role in plant evolution and reproductive ecology, and variation among individuals creates an opportunity for selection to act. Differences in male reproductive success can be caused by processes that occur during two stages, the pollination and post-pollination phases of reproduction. In the pollination phase, heritable variation in floral traits and floral display affect pollinator visitation patterns, which in turn affect variation among plants in the amount of pollen exported and deposited on recipient stigmas.

Hermaphroditism promotes mate diversity in flowering plants.

Premise: Genetically diverse sibships are thought to increase parental fitness through a reduction in the intensity of sib competition, and through increased opportunities for seedling establishment in spatially or temporally heterogeneous environments. Nearly all research on mate diversity in flowering plants has focused on the number of fathers siring seeds within a fruit or on a maternal plant. Yet as hermaphrodites, plants can also accrue mate diversity by siring offspring on several pollen recipients in a population.