Plant Biology ISSN 1435-8603 RESEARCH PAPER Morphological variation in the flowers of Jacaratia mexicana A. DC. (Caricaceae), a subdioecious tree A. Aguirre1, M. Vallejo-Marı´n2, E. M. Piedra-Malago´ n3, R. Cruz-Ortega4 & R. Dirzo5 1 Departamento de Biologı´a Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecologı´a A.C., Congregacio´ n El Haya, Xalapa, Veracruz, Me´ xico 2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 3 Posgrado Instituto de Ecologı´a A.C., Congregacio´ n El Haya, Xalapa, Veracruz, Me´ xico 4 Departamento de Ecologı´a Funcional, Instituto de Ecologı´a, UNAM, Me´ xico 5 Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA Keywords ABSTRACT Caricaceae; dioecy; Jacaratia mexicana; Mexico; sexual variation. The Caricaceae is a small family of tropical trees and herbs in which most species are dioecious. In the present study, we extend our previous work on Correspondence dioecy in the Caricaceae, characterising the morphological variation in sex- A. Aguirre, Departamento de Biologı´a ual expression in flowers of the dioecious tree Jacaratia mexicana. We found Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecologı´a A.C., Km. 2.5 that, in J. mexicana, female plants produce only pistillate flowers, while Carretera Antigua a Coatepec 351, male plants are sexually variable and can bear three different types of flow- Congregacio´ n El Haya, Xalapa 91070, ers: staminate, pistillate and perfect. To characterise the distinct types of Veracruz, Me´ xico. flowers, we measured 26 morphological variables. Our results indicate that: E-mail:
[email protected] (i) pistillate flowers from male trees carry healthy-looking ovules and are morphologically similar, although smaller than, pistillate flowers on female Editor plants; (ii) staminate flowers have a rudimentary, non-functional pistil and M.