Temporal variation of plant sexes in a wild population of Tulipa sinkiangensis over seven years

doi:10.17520/biods.2018038

Abstract

Abstract:

Understanding the variation in plant sexual strategies provides insights into the evolution of plant sexual systems. In hermaphrodite plants, floral gender is thought to be a plastic response that allows individuals to vary resource allocation to both female and male function under variable environmental conditions. Tulipa sinkiangensis is known to be hermaphroditic, early spring ephemeral plant, but our preliminary investigation showed that some populations had perfect flowers whereas other populations had staminate flowers. To understand correlates of occurrence and temporal variation of staminate flowers in T. sinkiangensis, we examined flower sex and its variation among individuals in a population of nearly 1,000 plants in Xinjiang, northwestern China from 2011 to 2017. (1) In the study population one-flower and two-flower plants comprised 74.5% (4,373) and 23.0% (1,358) of all flowering individuals (5,863), respectively. Sex differentiation was seen primarily in drier areas with shallow soils. Perfect and staminate flowers randomly occurred on different plants, constituting a hermaphroditic based population with some male and andromonoecious individuals. (2) Compared to perfect flowers, staminate flowers appeared later within individual plants and in the whole population during flowering. Staminate flowers were smaller and had aborted ovaries without visible ovules. However, pollen number and size, pollen morphology and fertility were not significantly different from perfect flowers when the two floral morphs were the same size. (3) During 2011 to 2014 of the study period, percentage of staminate flowers in the population declined from 23.4% to 3.1% but remained at stable (1.5% to 1.0%) from 2015 to 2017. The number of one-flower plants and two-flower plants fluctuated with time. (4) Our observations suggest that the production of staminate flowers in this endemic tulip flower was likely a plastic response to plant resource status, environmental conditions and other ecological factors.

http://jtp.cnki.net/bilingual/detail/html/SWDY201805011

Key words: Tulipa sinkiangensis, gender differentiation, staminate flowers, sex ratio, temporal variation

Juan Wang, Yaxin Zhai, Aiqin Zhang. Temporal variation of plant sexes in a wild population of Tulipa sinkiangensis over seven years[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2018, 26(5): 519-526.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2018038

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2018/V26/I5/519

Figures/Tables 3

Fig. 1 The morphological and anatomy structure of staminate flower and perfect flower in Tulipa sinkiangensis. (A) Tulipa sinkiangensis plant with perfect flower; (B) Perfect flower with fertile ovary; (C) Staminate flower with sterile ovary; (D) Ovary crosscutting of perfect flower; (E) Ovary crosscutting of staminate flower; (F) Pollen grain morphology of perfect flower; (G) Ovary longitudinal cutting of perfect flower; (H) Ovary longitudinal cutting of staminate flower; (I) Pollen grain morphology of staminate flower. Ov1, Ovary; Ov2, Ovule; Pl, Placenta.

Fig. 2 Temporal variation of plant sexes in a wild population of Tulipa sinkiangensis. (A) The sex-ratio dynamic of staminate and perfect flower within plants from 2011 to 2017; (B) Annual changes in the proportion of staminate flowers at the level of population from 2011 to 2017. Different letters indicate significant difference at P = 0.05 level.

Table 1 Floral traits of perfect and staminate flowers in Tulipa sinkiangensis (mean ± SE, n = 20)

花型 Floral morph	外轮Outer (cm)		内轮Inner (cm)		雄蕊Stamen (cm)		雌蕊Pistil (cm)		花粉量 No. of pollen grains per flower	败育率 Abortin ratio (%)
花型 Floral morph	花瓣长 Petal length	花瓣宽 Petal width	花瓣长 Petal length	花瓣宽 Petal width	花丝长 Filament length	花药长 Anther length	子房直径 Ovary diameter	雌蕊长 Pistil length	花粉量 No. of pollen grains per flower	败育率 Abortin ratio (%)
两性花 Perfect flower	2.31 ± 0.050	0.81 ± 0.035	2.14 ± 0.042	0.97 ± 0.042	0.52 ± 0.009	0.57 ± 0.013	0.22 ± 0.011	0.82 ± 0.039	101,000 ± 7,007	3.16 ± 0.99
雄花 Staminate flower	2.20 ± 0.039	0.59 ± 0.023	1.99 ± 0.040	0.84 ± 0.034	0.50 ± 0.010	0.51 ± 0.015	0.08 ± 0.010	0.56 ± 0.045	95,055 ± 10,249	3.47 ± 0.91
t	1.79	5.38	2.64	2.38	1.35	3.52	8.75	4.39	0.48	0.22
P	0.080	2.15*10^-6	0.011	0.021	0.18	0.0010	4.77*10^-7	0.0010	0.64	0.83

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