Disruptive selection via pollinators and seed predators on the height of flowers on a wind-dispersed alpine herb.

ABSTRACT:

Premise

Floral stalk height is known to affect seed dispersal of wind-dispersed grassland species, but it may also affect the attractiveness of flowers and fruits of animal-pollinated and animal-dispersed plants. Stalk height may thus be responsive to selection via interactions with both mutualist pollinators and seed dispersers, but also antagonist florivores and seed predators. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect of pollinators and seed predators on selection on floral stalk height in the insect-pollinated and wind-dispersed, alpine, andromonoecious herb Pulsatilla alpina, whose flowers also vary in their sex allocation and thus in the resources available to both mutualists and antagonists.

Methods

We measured the resource status of individuals in terms of thei

SUBMITTER: Chen KH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9828390 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature