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AOBPreview published online on August 10, 2005
Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mci236
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Received March 18, 2005
Revised May 19, 2005
Accepted June 16, 2005

Article

Plant Traits, Environmental Factors, and Pollinator Visitation in Winter-flowering Helleborus foetidus (Ranunculaceae)

ALFONSO M. SÁNCHEZ-LAFUENTE 1*, JAVIER GUITIÁN 2, MÓNICA MEDRANO 1, CARLOS M. HERRERA 1, PEDRO J. REY 3, and XIM CERDÁ 1

1 Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avda. de Maria Luisa s/n, Pabellón del Perú, E-41013 Sevilla, Spain
2 Departamento de Botánica, Universidad de Santiago, Campus Sur, E-15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
3 Departamento de Biología Animal, Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén, E-23071 Jaén, Spain

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
ALFONSO M. SÁNCHEZ-LAFUENTE, E-mail: slafuente{at}us.es


  Abstract

• Background and Aims This study examined the effect of plant traits and environmental factors on pollinator visitation in the winter-flowering Helleborus foetidus (Ranunculaceae) in three distant regions in the Iberian Peninsula.

• Methods Geographical variation in floral visitor assemblage, plant traits and environmental factors were analysed during the flowering season.

• Key Results Differences were found in all plant traits measured (number of open flowers, flower size, number of stamens per flower, and number of nectaries) both within and among regions, and differences among regions in all the environmental factors considered (air temperature, exposure to sunlight, canopy cover, and distance to the nearest neighbour). Differences were also found among regions in the probability that plants would be visited by pollinators.

• Conclusions The results show that, although floral display (i.e. number of open flowers on a plant on a given day) consistently explained among-plant differences in visitation rate in all regions, visitation rate was not significantly affected by any other biological or environmental variable. In Helleborus foetidus, then, ‘how’ the plant is would seem to be more important than ‘where’ is it.

Keywords: Environmental factors, floral display, Helleborus foetidus, plant traits, pollinator visitation, winter flowering.
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