Plant Reproductive Biology

Michael G. Simpson

What is it?
Study of sexual and asexual reproduction
Pollination mechanisms
Gene flow
Genetic variation
Propagule dispersal
Why study it?
Insight into adaptive significance & homology of systematic
characters
Insight into delimitation of species and subspecies.
 Sexual Reproduction
Non-seed plants
Seed plants:
Pollination - transfer of pollen from microsporangia to
stigma (angiosperms) or ovule (gymnosperms)
Wind pollination - ancestral (all gymnosperms)
Animal pollination - derived for angiosperms
Some angiosperms secondarily wind pollinated
Fertilization - fusion of sperm and egg ––> embryo (new
sporophyte)
 Strategy of animal pollination:
Attractant & Reward
Attractant
Visual
perianth
stamens (e.g., Myrtaceae, Mimosoideae)
staminodes (e.g., Zingiberaceae, Cannaceae)
corona (e.g., Narcissus)
inflorescence
Olfactory - usu. from perianth
sweet
rotten (foul/fetid) - e.g., fly pollinated flowers
 Strategy of animal pollination:
Attractant & Reward
Reward
Nectar
Pollen
Waxes
Resins

or “Trick” instead of a “Treat”

Insect trapped (Aristolochia) or drowned (Nymphaea sp.)
Mimicry
E.g., fooling male insect into “mating” with orchid
 Pollination Mechanisms
INSECT (entomophily)

Bees (melittophily/hymenopterophyly):
fls. showy, colorful, fragrant, with:
nectar guides
landing platforms

Butterflies (psychophily):
fls showy, colorful, fragrant
no nectar guides
long tubes or spurs
 Pollination Mechanisms
Moths (phalaenophily):
large, white, fragrant
no nectar guides
usually tubes or spurs
 Pollination Mechanisms
Flies (sapromyiophily)
maroon / brown in color
foul smelling (like rotting flesh)
 Pollination Mechanisms

Birds (ornithophily):
red (often, not always)
tubular (often)
 Pollination Mechanisms

Bats (cheiropterophily):
nocturnal anthesis
large, colorful or white
produce copious nectar or pollen
 Pollination Mechanisms
Wind (anemophily):
flowers small, numerous, often unisexual
perianth absent or non-showy
flowers often produced in mass
 Pollination Mechanisms
Water (hydrophily):
 Breeding systems

Outbreeding versus Inbreeding vs. in-between

 Breeding systems

Outbreeding = outcrossing / allogamy / xenogamy:

How is it promoted?

1) Plant sex: dioecy (incl. gynodioecy, androdioecy, trioecy)

 Breeding systems
Outbreeding = outcrossing / allogamy / xenogamy:
2) Difference in timing of floral parts = dichogamy
protandry - male first
protogyny - female first
 Breeding systems
Outbreeding = outcrossing / allogamy / xenogamy:
3) Spatial separation of anthers and stigmas = hercogamy

heterostyly: different style/stigma & correlated anther heights

Outbreeding = outcrossing / allogamy / xenogamy:
3) Spatial separation of anthers and stigmas = hercogamy

enantiostyly: left & right-handed flowers

Outbreeding = outcrossing / allogamy / xenogamy:
3) Spatial separation of anthers and stigmas = hercogamy

movement hercogamy: trigger mechanisms

Outbreeding = outcrossing / allogamy / xenogamy:
3) Spatial separation of anthers and stigmas = hercogamy

movement hercogamy: e.g., stigma movement

Diplacus [Mimulus] aurantiacus (Phyrmaceae)

Folding of style best explained as adaptation
to reduce interference in bird pollination
 Outbreeding = outcrossing / allogamy / xenogamy:

4) Self-incompatibility

Genetically determined, inability for fertilization to occur between

gametes derived from one individual.
 Inbreeding = selfing

autogamy (w/in 1 flower) & geitonogamy (between fls. of 1 indiv.)

Selective advantage: ensures propagule production

Disadvantage: reduced to absent genetic variability

allautogamy: both outcrossing & inbreeding

e.g., Viola, Clarkia: two flower types:
chasmogamous flowers - normal, open
cleistogamous flowers - remain closed
 Fruit/seed dispersal
Wind - samaras, winged seeds
Water - e. g., Cocos nucifera (Arecaceae)
Explosive dehiscence
Self (Autochory, e. g., Arachis hypogaea)
Animal
 Asexual Reproduction

Vegetative reproduction: ramets

Rhizomes
Bulbs, bulbels
Corms, cormels
Plantlets
 Asexual Reproduction

Agamospermy - seed production without fertilization

Parthenogenesis (diploid egg)
Adventive polyembryony (non-egg diploid cell)
Hybridization in plants
Polyploidy – evolution of multiple sets of chromosomes; major
mechanism of speciation.
 Hybridization in plants

Common
Can produce sterile, vegetatively reproducing species (e. g.,
certain cacti)
 Testing for breeding mechanisms

A B C D
1) Control + + + +
2) Caged, self-pollinated - + + +
3) Caged, left alone - - + +
4) Emasculated, caged - - - +
5) Caged, emascul., outcrossed + + + +

What is the breeding mechanisms for

species A, B, C, D?