Bromeliads going batty: pollinator partitioning among sympatric chiropterophilous Bromeliaceae.

ABSTRACT: Pollinators can be a limited resource and natural selection should favour differences in phenotypic characteristics to reduce competition among plants. Bats are important pollinators of many Neotropical plants, including the Bromeliaceae; however, the pre-pollination mechanisms for isolation among sympatric bat-pollinated bromeliads are unknown. Here, we studied the mechanisms for reproductive segregation between Pitcairnia recurvata, Pseudalcantarea viridiflora, Werauhia noctiflorens and W. nutans. The study was conducted at Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, in Veracruz, Mexico We carried out ex situ and in situ manual pollination treatments to determine the breeding system by assessing fruiting and seedling success and sampled bat visitors using mis

SUBMITTER: Aguilar-Rodriguez PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6537948 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature