Pollen release in the Proteaceae
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Pollen release in the Proteaceae Philip G. Ladd1 · Barbara J. Bowen1 Received: 18 December 2019 / Accepted: 11 August 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Pollen dispersal is the step in higher plant mating systems over which the parent plant has the least control as it is dependent on the vagaries of weather conditions (anemophily) or animal behaviour (animal pollinator activity). While many families have passive release from the anther the Proteaceae has a diversity of pollen dispersal methods. Flowers from a range of species in the Proteaceae, covering the majority of genera from each of the four main subfamilies, were examined to determine how pollen is dispersed and to gain an overall view of how male function varies within the family. This provides a basis for predicting the degree of the six likely fates of pollen released in this family. Only one group (subfamily Persoonioideae) and four genera in one other subfamily (Proteoideae) dispense pollen directly from the anthers onto a flower visitor. Five genera in the Proteoideae have explosive pollen release, while Symphionema may require vibration to release the pollen. All the remaining Proteoideae genera, the single species of Bellendenoideae, and all genera of the Grevilleoideae (except Sphalmium) have a pollen presenter where pollen is dispersed from the style of the flower. Ancestral Proteaceae were likely to have been insect pollinated and had relatively small flowers. Taxa with explosive pollen release may have evolved early in the family and may have been more abundant early in the fossil record. However, the taxa with pollen presenters became much more abundant throughout the Tertiary when many developed robust gynoecia that can accommodate larger vertebrate pollinators. Keywords Ballistic pollination · Banksia · Explosive pollination · Pollen fate · Pollen presenter · Protea
Introduction Male function in flowering plants aims to get the most superior pollen to the most fit female recipient. In most flowering plants, the transfer of the male gametes to the egg cell is dependent on some sort of transportation method. Most commonly that is by wind or animal vector (biotic). The male function in plants has more diversity (usually more complex stages) than female function and consists of pollen production, dispersal and receipt. Biotic pollination is more common than wind pollination (Kearns and Inouye 1997) and is also more complicated. The Handling Editor: Kester Bull-Hereñu. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-020-01707-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Philip G. Ladd [email protected] 1
Environmental and Conservation Science, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
most effective biotic pollen transfer would be if the pickup and delivery locations were in the same place and the pollen vector only transported the pollen rather than consuming it. However, in almost
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