TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hobbhahn, Nina
A1  - Küchmeister, Heike
A1  - Porembski, Stefan
T1  - Pollination biology of mass flowering terrestrial Utricularia species (Lentibulariaceae) in the Indian Western Ghats
JF  - Plant biology
N2  - The pollination biology of three mass flowering Utricularia species of the Indian Western Ghats, U. albocaerulea, U. purpurascens, and U. reticulata, was studied for the first time by extensive observation of flower visitors, pollination experiments, and nectar analyses. The ephemerality of the Utricularia habitats on lateritic plateaus, weather conditions adverse to insects, lack of observations of flower visitors to other Utricularia spp., and the predominance of at least. facultative autogamy in the few Utricularia species studied so far suggested that an autogamous breeding system is the common case in the genus. In contrast, we showed that the studied populations are incapable of autonomous selfing, or that it is an event of negligible rarity, although P/O was similarily low as in autogamous species investigated by other authors. In all three species the spatial arrangement of the reproductive organs makes an insect vector necessary for pollen transfer between and within flowers. However, U. purpurascens and U. reticulata are highly self-compatible, which allows for visitor-mediated auto-selfing and geitonogamy on inflorescence and clone level. Floral nectar is present in extremely small volumes in all three species, but sugar concentrations are high. More than 50 species of bees, butterflies, moths, hawk moths, and clipterans were observed to visit the flowers, and flower morphology facilitated pollination by all observed visitors. The results are discussed in the context of the phenological characteristics of the studied species, especially the phenomenon of mass flowering, and the environmental conditions of their habitats.
KW  - Lentibulariaceae
KW  - Utricularia
KW  - mass flowering
KW  - carnivory
KW  - India
KW  - Western Ghats
KW  - pollination
Y1  - 2008
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2006-924566
SN  - 1435-8603
VL  - 8
IS  - 6
SP  - 791
EP  - 804
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Oxford
ER  -