Abstract
Gynomonoecy, the occurrence of both pistillate (female) and perfect (hermaphroditic) flowers on the same plant, has received little attention compared to gynodioecy and other plant sexual systems. Eremurus anisopterus is a perennial ephemeral in the cold desert of northwest China with a hermaphrodite–gynomonoecious sexual system in the same population. The primary aim of this study was to compare the early life history traits and inbreeding depression between progeny from pistillate and hermaphrodite flowers in hermaphrodites and gynomonoecious individuals. All of the traits of progeny from outcrossed pistillate flowers on gynomonoecious plants were significantly greater than for other pollination types. Selfing (vs. outcrossing) resulted in a decrease in all traits, indicating inbreeding depression (ID) during early life history stages of gynomonoecious and hermaphroditic plants. ID for seed mass, seed germination and seedling survivorship under water stress for pistillate flowers on gynomonoecious plants was significantly higher than it was for hermaphrodite flowers on both gynomonoecious and hermaphrodite plants. The advantage of the offspring of pistillate (vs. hermaphrodite) flowers may contribute to the maintenance of gynomonoecy in E. anisopterus in its cold desert sand dune habitat.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 268 |
Journal | Diversity |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding: This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31960053), Tianshan Youth Program of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (2019Q019) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1603231).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Keywords
- early seedling growth
- Eremurus anisopterus
- hermaphrodite–gynomonoecious sexual system
- inbreeding depression
- offspring fitness
- seed germination
- seed mass
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology
- Ecological Modeling
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Nature and Landscape Conservation