| Abstract Detail
Tuesday Morning Contributed Talks Caraballo-Ortiz, Marcos A. [1], Santiago-Valentín, Eugenio [2]. Reproductive biology of the rare Caribbean tree Goetzea elegans Wydler (Solanaceae: Goetzeoideae). SUBFAMILY Goetzeoideae is an ancient lineage comprising 7 woody taxa from the Caribbean islands, South America, and Madagascar. The genus Goetzea is among the rarest of the group. Only about 200 reproductive individuals are known to exist. In spite being at the brink of extinction, very little is known on the biology of the genus. The objective of this project was to study the reproductive biology of Goetzea elegans, and to examine the relationship between spatial arrangement of the trees and their fecundity. Manual pollination was performed to elucidate the breeding systems. Also, two common flower visitors (the introduced Honey Bee, Apis mellifera, and the native nectarivorous bird Coereba flaveola) were tested as pollinators. The effects of the spatial arrangement of trees over their fecundity were measured by correlating the distance of the closest flowering neighbor to the fruit crop achieved. This study establishes that A. mellifera and C. flaveola, are pollinators of G. elegans, both being of similar efficiency. Our results show that fruit production of selfed and geitonogamous flowers was significantly lower than outcrossed flowers. Similarly, fruit set in bagged, non-manipulated flowers was very low, when compared to the exposed unbagged flowers. Thus, although Goetzea flowers are perfect, it is highly self-incompatible. In the wild population studied, isolated trees exhibited very low or no fruit set, contrasting with trees occurring in clusters, where fruit set was very high. These results clearly demonstrates that G. elegans, as with many other tropical trees, favors outcrossing to produce a good fruit crop, and tree isolation is affecting negatively the reproduction of this rare tree species.
Log in to add this item to your schedule
Related Links:
Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation, University of Puerto Rico
1 - University of Puerto Rico, Biology, Box 23360, San Juan, PR, 00931-3360, Puerto Rico
2 - University of Puerto Rico, Botanical Garden Herbarium, Box 364984, San Juan, PR, 00936-4984, Puerto Rico
Keywords:
Goetzea
Caribbean
conservation
Tropics
Pollination
Endangered Species
Goetzeoideae.
Session: SOL04-10
Location: Ballroom AB/Monona Terrace
Date: Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
Time: 11:30 AM
Abstract ID:123 |
