Costs of Flower and Fruit Production in Tipularia Discolor (Orchidaceae)'
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Ecology. 70(5), 1989, pp. 1286-1293 O 1989 by the Ecological Society of America COSTS OF FLOWER AND FRUIT PRODUCTION IN TIPULARIA DISCOLOR (ORCHIDACEAE)' ALLISONA. SNOW^ AND DENNISF. WHIGHAM Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland 21037 USA Abstract. The cost of reproduction may be an important constraint on the evolution of life history traits, yet it has seldom been adequately measured in plants. To demonstrate a net cost of reproductive structures one must show that their production has a negative effect on future growth. Using a summer-deciduous orchid, we compared subsequent growth of plants with no inflorescence, no fruits, few fruits (ilo), or many fruits (> 10). Greater investment in reproduction led to increasingly negative effects on future corm size and leaf area. The cost of an inflorescence without fruits was about one-half the cost of an inflo- rescence with few fruits. Each fruit cost the plant =2O/o of its total leaf area the next year. Natural pollination resulted in a mean of seven fruits per plant. Hand-pollination led to a dramatic increase in fruit set (up to 25 fruits per plant), and a large decrease in subsequent growth. Plants with many fruits were less likely to propagate vegetatively than those with few fruits. Also, plants with many fruits were less likely to flower the following year, probably because they were smaller than those with few fruits. The potential benefits of greater pollinator visitation are unclear because larger "clutch size" may not result in greater lifetime fecundity. Key words: clonal; corm growth; fruit set: inflorescence; life history patterns: plant size; pollen- limitation; pollination; orchid; reproductive costs; Tipularia discolor. Most studies of the cost of reproduction employ the A basic tenet of life history theory is that traits such first approach, since carbon allocation, in particular, as clutch size and the frequency of reproduction have can easily be estimated in terms of biomass. One prob- evolved to maximize an organism's lifetime fitness lem wi.th this technique is that carbon allocation may (Steams 1977). If reproductive episodes divert re- not accurately reflect the distribution of limiting nu- sources from an organism's maintenance and growth, trients, which may be concentrated in seeds or other this cost can represent a constraint on the evolution of plant parts (Lovett Doust 1980, Thompson and Stew- possible life history traits (Williams 1966, Pianka and art 198 1). In many species, however, general patterns Parker 1975, Charnov 1982). In plants, allocation of of carbon allocation are well correlated with the dis- resources to reproduction may occur at the expense of tribution of macronutrients (Abrahamson and Caswell future vegetative growth, which in turn could alter 1982, data in Whigham 1984, Reekie and Bazzaz competitive ability, susceptibility to predation, vege- 1987b). A more serious problem with using carbon as tative propagation, and other characteristics that affect the currency for measuring reproductive costs is that survivorship and lifetime fecundity. flowers, fruits, and their supporting structures can It is widely assumed that flowering and fruit set occur sometimes carry on photosynthesis (Bazzaz et al. 1979, at the expense of future growth. Quantifying the costs Alpert et al. 1985, Jurik 1985, Williams et al. 1985). ofreproduction, however, can be problematic (Thomp- These organs may therefore be partially self sufficient son and Stewart 198 1, Reekie and Bazzaz 1987a, b, and may even stimulate photosynthetic rates of nearby c). Two approaches have been used to assess the cost leaves (Neales and Incoll 1968, Reekie and Bazzaz of reproduction in plants. One involves estimating the 1987~).In some cases, then, direct measurements of proportion of limiting resources, such as carbon or biomass allocation would overestimate the cost of seed nutrients, that are allocated to reproductive structures production to the parent plant, leading to erroneous (Harper 1977, Bloom et al. 1985, Jurik 1985). This conclusions about trade-offs between reproduction and proportion is often referred to as a plant's reproductive future growth. Species also vary in their ability to re- effort (Thompson and Stewart 198 1). The other method cover nutrients and nonstructural carbon invested in is to determine whether reproductive events lead to a reproductive organs (Chapin 1980, Whigham 1984). decrease in future growth, reproduction, and survi- Unless allocation to one structure or activity occurs at vorship. the expense of another, it is difficult to make predic- tions about the evolutionary causes and ecological con- sequences of different allocation patterns (Harper 1977). I Manuscript received 30 June 1988; revised 22 November 1988; accepted 30 November 1988. Ultimately, then, the best way to assess the net cost Present address: Botany Department, Ohio State Univer- of reproduction is to test for an associated decrease in sity, 1735 Neil Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1293 USA. subsequent growth. Although relatively few investi- October 1989 REPRODUCTIVE COSTS IN TIPL'LARM 1287 gators have followed this approach, most who did have the following spring (Fig. 1). Corms occur near the soil found that producing offspring is costly. Flower and surface and usually persist for 2-3 yr. This growth form fruit production led to a decrease in growth in several makes it easy to measure leaf area, total plant size, and conifers (Eis et al. 1965), Podophyllum peltatum (Sohn net annual carbon gain (corms can be excavated, mea- and Policansky 1977), Poa annua (Law 1979), and sured, and replaced nondestructively). Plantago lanceolata (Antonovics 1980), and to earlier Plants are leafless throughout the summer. In July, mortality in Poa annua (Law 1979) and Senecio ken- corms that are sufficiently large produce inflorescences iodendron (Smith and Young 1982). Individuals of sev- of 20-30 flowers. Animal vectors (noctuid moths) are eral orchid species were smaller after reproducing (see required for pollen transfer (Stoutamire 1978, Whig- Discussion). Reproduction did not lead to reduced ham and McWethy 1980). Tipularia is self-compatible growth in laboratory-grown Agr~pyronrepens (Reekie (Whigham and McWethy 1980) but selfing is probably and Bazzaz 1987b). rare because extracted pollinia are initially covered by The separate costs of flower and fruit production can a thin cap. Pollinia will not adhere to stigmas until the be determined by comparing the subsequent growth of cap falls off, at least 30 min after extraction (A. Snow, flowering plants that set fruit with those that do not. personal observation). Fruits mature by October and Fruit set reduced subsequent growth in Podophyllum release thousands of dust-like seeds. Reproductive peltatum (Sohn and Policansky 1977) and Asclepias structures including fruits comprise 20°/0 of a plant's quadrijiolia (Chaplin and Walker 1982), but not in dioe- dry mass (data from naturally pollinated plants, older cious Acer negundo (Willson 1986). Bierzychudek corms included, Whigham 1984). (1984) found that female jack-in-the-pulpits that pro- Just prior to forest leaf fall, each corm produces one duced fruits were more likely to become males than or occasionally two new leaves. Primary and smaller nonfruiting females, and males were typically smaller secondary leaves arise from opposite ends of the corm than females. When Ipomopsis aggregata individuals (Fig. 1). When two leaves are produced, the corm that failed to set fruit, they shifted from the normal sem- connects them disintegrates within a few years, so close elparous mode of reproduction to iteroparous repro- neighbors may be ramets from the same parent. (Seed- duction (Paige and Whitham 1987). Costs of high fruit ling recruitment near mature plants has never been set are avoided to some extent by species that abort observed in an ongoing 11-yr study of permanently pollinated flowers or young fruits (Lloyd 1980, Ste- marked plants [Whigham and O'Neill 19881.) Corm phenson 198 1). growth and clonal propagation in South Carolina pop- These results clearly indicate that the cost of repro- ulations of Tipularia were described in detail by Efird duction varies among species. This occurs for several (1987). reasons. First, the proportion of a plant's biomass that We studied two populations of Tipularia in decid- is allocated to reproductive structures varies widely uous forests at the Smithsonian Environmental Re- among species (Harper 1977). Also, the phenology of search Center, near Edgewater, Maryland, USA. The flowering and fruiting is seasonally variable among populations were = 1.2 km apart. Costs of flower and species, and these events do not always correspond to fruit production were measured at Site 1 only. In 1987 times of greatest photosynthetic activity or resource we labelled 120 flowering plants at Site 1 and assigned availability. Finally, reproductive structures vary in them to one of three treatments: no fruit (pollinated their ability to photosynthesize and to translocate re- flowers removed), natural pollination, or hand-polli- sources back to the parent plant. nation (every flower received pollen from another plant). Here we report results from experimental studies of A fourth "treatment" consisted of 40 large vegetative the net costs of reproduction in the cranefly orchid, plants (nonflowering). Whenever possible, each of the Tipularia discolor. Our aim was to assess the relative four treatments was assigned at random within a group costs of