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Phenology and pollination ecology of Prosopis rubriflora (Leguminosae, Mimosoideae), a species from the semi-arid Brazilian Chaco

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Abstract

Prosopis L. is particularly rich and important in the Chaco region where forest vegetation currently persists as fragments. Its species are very important for the conservation and management of Chaco vegetation, and understanding their phenology and reproductive biology is essential. Here, we studied the phenology and pollination biology of P. rubriflora Hassl. in the Brazilian Chaco compared to other species of the genus. Differing from other Prosopis species, P. rubriflora is evergreen, and most phenophases are nonseasonal and bimodal (except fruiting), with a continuous pattern. Prosopis rubriflora is andromonoecious, but only weakly, since plants produce relatively few staminate flowers. Flowers showed three floral stylar phenotypes: short, medium and long style. Short-style flowers are functionally staminate because the stigma is nonreceptive. To compensate for the small size of P. rubriflora red brush flowers, attraction is compressed and transferred to the spike, which functions as a collective pollination unit. This compression may favour self- and intraplant pollination, which may reduce and/or prevent the occurrence of protogyny and partial, i.e. temporal, herkogamy in hermaphrodite flowers. Prosopis rubriflora has generalist pollination, but differs from the other Prosopis species because it is also pollinated by hummingbird, most likely due to its “ornithophilous” characteristics. This species is the first of the genus recorded as pollinated by hummingbirds. Although the exotic bee Apis mellifera L. presents high frequency of visit, this bee is not effective pollinator, due to its foraging style that does not favour cross-pollen flow. Native insects and hummingbird species are main pollinators because they present trapline foraging.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to CAPES/PNADB (Coordenacão de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior/Plano Nacional de Apoio Desenvolvimento à Botânica) for financial support to first and last authors. We are grateful to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (Process: 115037/2012-1; 303084/2011-1), CAPES and Rufford Foundation (RSGF 21366-1—Grant CSS), Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Vegetal/UFMS and Programa de Pós-Graduacão stricto sensu em Botânica, da Escola Nacional de Botânica Tropical do Instituto Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro for logistical and/or financial support. We would also like to thank the taxonomists Andre Victor Lucci Freitas and Daniel Máximo C. de Alcântara for butterfly and fly identification, respectively. Furthermore, we thank Sérgio de Oliveira for allowing access to his farm Retiro Conceicão and Hannah Doerrier for final review of English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Polinização, Reprodução e Fenologia de Plantas, InBio, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Caixa Postal 549, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, 79070-900, Brazil

    Maria Rosângela Sigrist, Wanderléia Vargas & Katiane Sousa Mateus Almeida

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Vegetal, InBio, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Caixa Postal 549, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, 79070-900, Brazil

    Thiago Henrique Stefanello & Camila Silveira de Souza

  3. Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, 80060-000, Brazil

    Sebastião Laroca

  4. Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, DIPEQ, R. Pacheco Leão 915, Rio De Janeiro, RJ, 22460-030, Brazil

    Vidal Freitas Mansano

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  1. Maria Rosângela Sigrist
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  2. Thiago Henrique Stefanello
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Correspondence to Maria Rosângela Sigrist.

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40415_2017_433_MOESM1_ESM.doc

Fig. S1 Annual distribution of mean monthly (Tmean), mean monthly maximum (Tmax), and mean monthly minimum (Tmin) temperatures (°C), rainfall (mm) and mean day length (h) in a remnant of Chaco vegetation (Thorn-Forest), Porto Murtinho, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, from September 2010 to September 2011. Gray band = rainy season (DOC 186 kb)

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Sigrist, M.R., Stefanello, T.H., de Souza, C.S. et al. Phenology and pollination ecology of Prosopis rubriflora (Leguminosae, Mimosoideae), a species from the semi-arid Brazilian Chaco. Braz. J. Bot 41, 103–115 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-017-0433-9

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