Reproductive ecology of the Australian herb Trachymene incisa subsp. incisa (Apiaceae)

Abstract

Within the Apiaceae, subtle variation in reproductive characters such as dichogamy, pollinator specificity and umbel density may cause cryptic specialisation and be responsible for the diversity of life histories and gender expression in the family. To address the paucity of information for Australian species we investigated the reproductive ecology of the native perennial herb, Trachymene incisa Rudge subsp. incisa. T. incisa exhibits protandry within flowers and umbels; however, an overlap of 3 days in male and female phases among umbels of consecutive orders permits geitonogamous pollination. There are 72 ± 2.0 (n = 74) white flowers per umbel and nectar is presented during the male and female phases. Apis mellifera appears to be the main diurnal pollinator. The pollen:ovule ratio is 1902:1, indicating that T. incisa is a facultatively xenogamous species. The long phase of pollen presentation and the low natural seed set of about 45% implies that many flowers are functioning as pollen donors only. Controlled pollination experiments showed that self-pollen led to lower seed set than cross, open and supplemental applications. Early and late-produced cohorts differed in days to emergence but not in seed mass or final percentage emergence.