Changes in female function and autonomous selfing across floral lifespan interact to drive variation in the cost of selfing.

ABSTRACT:

Premise

Morphological and developmental changes as flowers age can impact patterns of mating. At the same time, direct or indirect costs of floral longevity can alter their fitness outcomes. This influence has been less appreciated, particularly with respect to the timing of selfing. We investigated changes in stigma events, autonomous selfing, outcross seed set capacity, and autofertility-a measure representing the potential for reproductive assurance-across floral lifespan in the mixed-mating biennial Sabatia angularis.

Methods

We examined stigma morphology and receptivity, autonomous self-pollen deposition, and seed number and size under autonomous self-pollination and hand outcross-pollination for flowers of different ages, from 1 d of female phase until 14 d. We compare

SUBMITTER: Spigler RB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9315013 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature