Floral Water Costs and Size Variation in the Highly Selfing<i>Leptosiphon bicolor</i>(Polemoniaceae)

Lambrecht, Susan C.

doi:10.1086/668230

Cited by 70 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, pollinators often select for larger corolla size, but such increases exert a large cost in terms of water loss in dry environments [47,48,50], as noted above. Without information on the physical-environmental niche, it would be hard to ascertain why more species do not display large flowers.…”

Section: (B) the Axes Of Specializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary ecology of specialization: insights from phylogenetic analysis

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this Special feature, we assemble studies that illustrate phylogenetic approaches to studying salient questions regarding the effect of specialization on lineage diversification. The studies use an array of techniques involving a wide-ranging collection of biological systems (plants, butterflies, fish and amphibians are all represented). Their results reveal that macroevolutionary examination of specialization provides insight into the patterns of trade-offs in specialized systems; in particular, the genetic mechanisms of trade-offs appear to extend to very different aspects of life history in different groups. In turn, because a species may be a specialist from one perspective and a generalist in others, these trade-offs influence whether we perceive specialization to have effects on the evolutionary success of a lineage when we examine specialization only along a single axis. Finally, how geographical range influences speciation and extinction of specialist lineages remains a question offering much potential for further insight.

show abstract

Section: (B) the Axes Of Specializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary ecology of specialization: insights from phylogenetic analysis

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…An important potential cost is associated with the provision of water, which plays a role in flower opening and pollination success [4]. Flower maintenance may require a considerable amount of water [5] and, under dry conditions, the water loss from flowers can be more than from the leaves [6]. Therefore, understanding the physiological characteristics of flower water-relations is likely to provide new insights into the evolution of flowers and pollination ecology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are flowers vulnerable to xylem cavitation during drought?

Zhang

Brodribb

2017

Proc. R. Soc. B.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Water stress is known to cause xylem cavitation in the leaves, roots and stems of plants, but little is known about the vulnerability of flowers to xylem damage during drought. This is an important gap in our understanding of how and when plants become damaged by water stress. Here we address fundamental questions about if and when flowers suffer cavitation damage, using a new technique of cavitation imaging to resolve the timing of cavitation in water-stressed flower petals compared with neighbouring leaves. Leaves and flowers from a sample of two herbaceous and two woody eudicots were exposed to a severe water stress while the spatial and temporal propagation of embolism through veins was recorded. Although in most cases water potentials inducing 50% embolism of herbaceous flower veins were more negative than neighbouring leaves, there was no significant difference between the average vulnerability of leaves and petals of herbaceous species. In both woody species, petals were more vulnerable to cavitation than leaves, in one case by more than 3 MPa. Early cavitation and subsequent damage of flowers in the two woody species would thus be expected to precede leaf damage during drought. Similar cavitation thresholds of flowers and leaves in the herb sample suggest that cavitation during water shortage in these species will occur simultaneously among aerial tissues. Species-specific differences in the cavitation thresholds of petals provide a new axis of variation that may explain contrasting flowering ecology among plant species.

show abstract

“…Within species, plants in dry locations tend to produce smaller flowers Plant Ecol than they do in wetter locations (Herrera 2005;Lambrecht and Dawson 2007;Elle et al 2010;Suárez et al 2011;Lambrecht 2013). Although floral size tends to be less plastic than vegetative or physiological traits, reductions in flower size in response to decreased soil moisture availability have been demonstrated in several species (Carroll et al 2001;Elle and Hare 2002;Mal and Lovett-Doust 2005;Caruso 2006;Edwards et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This floral plasticity may be functional for plants. Given that flowers transpire significant amounts of water (Patiño and Grace 2002;Feild et al 2009;Lambrecht et al 2011;Lambrecht 2013;Teixido and Valladares 2014) and this water loss can affect leaf functioning, particularly under dry conditions (Galen et al 1999;Lambrecht and Dawson 2007;Lambrecht 2013), variation and plasticity in floral size may be an important mechanism to control water loss when plants are faced with drought (Galen et al 1999;Caruso 2006;Lambrecht and Dawson 2007). Investigating the adaptive role of floral size variation and plasticity in conjunction with leaf morphology, physiology, and reproductive traits may provide insight into the evolution of plants in relation to moisture availability (Edwards et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in and adaptive plasticity of flower size and drought-coping traits

2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although phenotypic plasticity of morphological and physiological traits in response to drought could be adaptive, there have been relatively few tests of plasticity variation or of adaptive plasticity in drought-coping traits across populations with different moisture availabilities. We measured floral size, vegetative size, and physiological traits in four field populations of Leptosiphon androsaceus (Polemoniaceae) that were distributed across a rainfall gradient in California, USA. Measurements were made over 5 years that varied in precipitation. We also conducted a growth chamber experiment in which half-sibs from three populations were divided equally among a well-watered and a drought treatment. We tested for selection on traits in each of the watering treatments, and evaluated whether traits exhibited plasticity. In the field, plant traits exhibited substantial variation across populations and years. Flower size, leaf size, and water-use efficiency (WUE) were generally higher for populations that received greater average rainfall. However, in dry years, we observed a decrease in flower and leaf size, but an increase in WUE across the populations. In the growth chamber experiment, leaf and physiological traits exhibited plasticity, with smaller leaves and higher WUE found in the drought, as compared to the well-watered treatment. Only specific leaf area exhibited differentiation in plasticity among populations. Although there was no observed plasticity in floral size, selection favored smaller flowers in the drought treatment and larger flowers in the well-watered treatment. Our results suggest that moisture availability has led to trait variation in L. androsaceus via a combination of selection and phenotypic plasticity.

show abstract

Floral Water Costs and Size Variation in the Highly SelfingLeptosiphon bicolor(Polemoniaceae)

Cited by 70 publications

References 48 publications

Evolutionary ecology of specialization: insights from phylogenetic analysis

Evolutionary ecology of specialization: insights from phylogenetic analysis

Are flowers vulnerable to xylem cavitation during drought?

Variation in and adaptive plasticity of flower size and drought-coping traits

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About