Reproductive trade-offs maintain bract color polymorphism in Scarlet Indian paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea).

ABSTRACT: Populations of scarlet Indian paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) in the Midwestern United States exhibit a bract color polymorphism, with each population having predominantly yellow or scarlet bracts. We investigated a possible mechanism for this maintenance of bract color polymorphism in C. coccinea by conducting hand-pollination experiments in two nearby populations, one predominantly yellow and one predominantly scarlet. The hand-pollination treatments were either self-pollination or cross pollination using pollen from within and between populations. Both color morphs were used as pollen donors for the within and between crosses. We found that both color morphs of C. coccinea were self-compatible. When the scarlet morph was the maternal plant it had higher seed set. When pollinators were

SUBMITTER: Kim ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6314579 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature