OPEN ACCESS The Journal of Threatened Taxa is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use of artcles in any medium, reproducton, and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Pollination ecology of Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn. (Asteraceae) B. Usharani & A.J. Solomon Raju 26 October 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 11 | Pages: 12538-12551 10.11609/jot.4008.10.11.12538-12551 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies and Guidelines visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints contact <[email protected]> Publisher & Host Partners Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2018 | 10(11): 12538–12551 Pollination ecology of Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn. Communication (Asteraceae) ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) 1 2 ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) B. Usharani & A.J. Solomon Raju 1,2 Department of Environmental Sciences, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh 530003, India OPEN ACCESS 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author) Abstract: Synedrella nodifora (L.) Gaertn grows almost throughout the year if the soil is damp. It produces heterogamous capitula with female ray forets anthesing on the frst day and bisexual disc forets anthesing on the next three consecutve days. Disc forets are dichogamous, herkogamous, self-compatble, self-pollinatng (vector-mediated) and display secondary pollen presentaton through an intermediate form of brush mechanism. Ray and disc forets exhibit facultatve xenogamy. Buterfies are principal pollinators while bees, wasps and fies are supplementary pollinators. Thrips Microcephalothrips abdominalis uses the forets as breeding and feeding sites; the feeding actvity efects pollinaton. The ray and disc forets produce cypselas; the cypselas produced by ray forets are heavier, elliptcal, membranous with upwardly-pointng teeth along the margins and two short terminal awns while those produced by disc forets are lighter, cylindrical and tangentally compressed with 2 or 3 stf terminal divaricate awns. Seed dispersal is polychorous and represented by anemochory, anthropochory, zoochory and ombrohydrochory. Cypselas of ray forets disperse to short distances and germinate under specifc germinaton conditons either at parental sites or in similar habitats while those of disc forets disperse farther away from parental sites and germinate readily under a wide range of conditons. Therefore, bimorphic cypselas with diferent germinaton abilites enable the plant to grow as a widespread weed but not as an invasive weed. Keywords: Bimorphiccypselas, entomophily, polychory, secondary pollen presentaton, Synedrella nodifora, thripsophily. DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4008.10.11.12538-12551 Editor: Kannan C.S. Warrier, Insttute of Forest Genetcs and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore, India. Date of publicaton: 26 October 2018 (online & print) Manuscript details: Ms # 4008 | Received 13 January 2018 | Final received 14 September 2018 | Finally accepted 26 September 2018 Citaton: Usharani, B. & A.J.S. Raju (2018). Pollinaton ecology of Synedrella nodifora (L.) Gaertn. (Asteraceae). Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(11): 12538–12551; htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4008.10.11.12538-12551 Copyright: © Usharani & Raju 2018. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this artcle in any medium, reproducton and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Funding: Self-funded. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author Details: Ms. B. Usharani is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Sciences, Andhra University. Recently, she has been awarded PhD under the guidance of Prof. A.J. Solomon Raju. She has published two research papers on pollinaton ecology. Prof. A.J. Solomon Raju is working in the Department of Environmental Sciences, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. He is the recipient of several natonal and internatonal awards. He has more than 300 research papers in internatonal and natonal Journals. He is on the editorial board of several internatonal journals. He visited USA, Canada, UK, Spain, Brazil, Paraguay, Mexico, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Hong Kong, China and Australia. Author Contributon: Both the authors contributed equally. Acknowledgements: We thank the Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, for providing physical facilites to carry out this research work. 12538 Pollinaton ecology of Synedrella nodifora Usharani & Raju INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS Synedrella is a monotypic genus with only a single Populatons of Synedrella nodifora growing in species, S. nodifora. The generic name is derived from Visakhapatnam region (17.6860N & 83.2180E ) in Andhra the Greek word “synedros” meaning small fowers seated Pradesh State, India were used for the study from together while the species name indicates the presence 2015–2017. Observatons regarding the organizaton of fower clusters around the nodes in the upper parts of inforescences, the spatal positoning of fowers, of the plant (Davidse et al. 2015). It is natve to tropical and their positon on the plant were made since America and from there it has become widespread these features are regarded as important for efectng throughout the warmer regions of the world (Holm et pollinaton by foragers. The life tme of individuals of al. 1997). It is spread throughout the Southeast Asian two foret types was recorded by marking twenty just region, found in the plains of India, in the Andamans open forets each and following them untl fall of. and West Africa. It is also found in Bangladesh, Japan, Anthesis was initally recorded by observing ten marked Spain, China and England (Chauhan & Johnson 2009). mature capitula in the feld. Later, the observatons The plant is used as feed for livestock and in traditonal were repeated fve tmes on diferent days; on each medicine to treat various health problems in Ghana, day we observed twenty marked mature capitula in Nigeria, Malaysia and Indonesia (Burkill 1985; Idu & order to provide an accurate anthesis schedule. Twenty Onyibe 2007). This plant displays foral features which mature disc forets were followed for recording the are characteristc of thripsophily (Ananthakrishnan tme of anther dehiscence. The presentaton patern of 1993). Further, it is reported that this plant with small pollen was also investgated by recording how anthers and less atractve heterogamous heads is inhabited dehisced and confrmed by observing the anthers under only by one terebrantan thrip, Microcephalotrhips a 10x hand lens. The details of fower morphology such abdominalis which is able to move freely within the as fower sex, shape, size, colour, odour, sepals, petals, capitulum and also fy to other capitula of the same plant stamens and ovary were described. or other nearby plants. As a result, they efect both self Twenty mature but undehisced anthers from disc and cross-pollinaton (Ananthakrishnan et al. 1981). forets were collected from fve randomly chosen plants Kissmann & Groth (1992) reported that Synedrella and placed in a petri dish. The pollen output per anther/ nodifora produces dimorphic cypselas. Rocha (1996) disc foret and pollen-ovule rato was calculated using stated that the morphological diferences between the protocol given by Cruden (1977). Individual volumes these cypselas infuence dispersion strategies directly. of nectar were recorded for 25 ray and 25 disc forets Bradford (1990) stated that both the cypselas of S. and then the average volume of nectar per each foret nodifora exhibit the same patern of imbibiton rates type was determined and expressed in µl. The capitula indicatng no relatonship to the germinaton rate or used for this purpose were bagged at the mature bud diferences in the fruit coat permeability. Brandel (2004) stage, opened afer anthesis and squeezed the nectar reported that the germinaton responses between from each foret into a micropipete to measure the these cypsela types are not so marked because of a volume of nectar. Based on nectar volume in individual lack of deep innate dormancy. However, they show ray and disc forets, the total volume of nectar secreted some diferences in germinaton rates depending on in a capitulum was calculated. Similarly, the nectar sugar their environment percepton. The state of informaton concentraton at the capitulum level was determined available on pollinaton and seed ecology is insufcient to using a Hand Sugar Refractometer (Erma, Japan). understand the pollinaton and propagaton abilites of S. Nectar analysis for sugar types was done as per the nodifora as a widespread weed across tropical lattudes. Paper Chromatography method described in Dafni et In this context, the present study was contemplated al. (2005). The sugar content/foret is expressed as the to