The evolution of pollinator-plant interaction types in the Araceae
- Author(s)
- Marion Chartier, Marc Gibernau, Susanne S. Renner
- Abstract
Most plant–pollinator interactions are mutualistic, involving rewards provided by flowers or inflorescences to pollinators. Antagonistic plant–pollinator interactions, in which flowers offer no rewards, are rare and concentrated in a few families including Araceae. In the latter, they involve trapping of pollinators, which are released loaded with pollen but unrewarded. To understand the evolution of such systems, we compiled data on the pollinators and types of interactions, and coded 21 characters, including interaction type, pollinator order, and 19 floral traits. A phylogenetic framework comes from a matrix of plastid and new nuclear DNA sequences for 135 species from 119 genera (5342 nucleotides). The ancestral pollination interaction in Araceae was reconstructed as probably rewarding albeit with low confidence because information is available for only 56 of the 120–130 genera. Bayesian stochastic trait mapping showed that spadix zonation, presence of an appendix, and flower sexuality were correlated with pollination interaction type. In the Araceae, having unisexual flowers appears to have provided the morphological precondition for the evolution of traps. Compared with the frequency of shifts between deceptive and rewarding pollination systems in orchids, our results indicate less lability in the Araceae, probably because of morphologically and sexually more specialized inflorescences.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research
- External organisation(s)
- Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, Kourou, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- Journal
- Evolution
- Volume
- 68
- Pages
- 1533-1543
- No. of pages
- 11
- ISSN
- 0014-3820
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.12318
- Publication date
- 12-2013
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 106008 Botany, 106012 Evolutionary research, 106042 Systematic botany
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all), Genetics, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/the-evolution-of-pollinatorplant-interaction-types-in-the-araceae(fde6e511-9218-43ed-a50c-9ccd98708f7d).html