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AOBPreview published online on September 18, 2009
Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mcp237
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Female reproductive success decreases with display size in monkshood, Aconitum kusnezoffii (Ranunculaceae)

Wan-Jin Liao, Yi Hu, Bi-Ru Zhu, Xia-Qing Zhao, Yan-Fei Zeng and Da-Yong Zhang*

State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology and MOE Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

* For correspondence. E-mail zhangdy{at}bnu.edu.cn

Received: 1 February 2009    Returned for revision: 30 March 2009    Accepted: 7 August 2009   

Background and Aims: Reduction in female fitness in large clones can occur as a result of increased geitonogamous self-fertilization and its influence through inbreeding depression. This possibility was investigated in the self-compatible, bee-pollinated perennial herb Aconitum kusnezoffii which varies in clone size.

Methods: Field investigations were conducted on pollinator behaviour, flowering phenology and variation in seed set. The effects of self-pollination following controlled self- and cross-pollination were also examined. Selfing rates of differently sized clones were assessed using allozyme markers.

Key Results: High rates of geitonogamous pollination were associated with large display size. Female fitness at the ramet level decreased with clone size. Fruit and seed set under cross-pollination were significantly higher than those under self-pollination. The pre-dispersal inbreeding depression was estimated as 0·502 based on the difference in seed set per flower between self- and cross-pollinated flowers. Selfing rates of differently sized clones did not differ.

Conclusions: It is concluded that in A. kusnezoffii the negative effects of self-pollination causing reduced female fertility with clone size arise primarily from a strong early-acting inbreeding depression leading to the abortion of selfed embryos prior to seed maturation.

Key words: Early-acting inbreeding depression, Aconitum kusnezoffii, clone size, female reproductive success, geitonogamy


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