The role of pollination in the population biology of the monocarpic speciesCirsium palustreandCirsium vulgare

✍ Scribed by B. H. Leeuwen

• Book ID: 104732158
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 536 KB
• Volume: 51
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0029-8549
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00344647

✦ Synopsis

The absence of cross-pollination in Cirsium palustre and Cirsium vulgare resulted in reduced achene production while the achenes produced were heavier than those produced after cross-pollimation. Establishment of plants from non-cross-pollinated achenes is comparatively higher, facilitating the founding of a population from isolated individuals in these wind-dispersed species.If achene weight is the result of a balance between cross-pollination and self-pollination (and/or apomixis), the first causing more and thereby lighter achenes to develop, increasing density of flowering individuals in a population may lower achene weight and consequently seedling survival. This may account for the frequently observed decline of populations of fugitive monocarpic perennials.