Flowering female plant with a visiting ant (Lasius).
The Borderea chouardii plant, which is critically endangered
and is found only on two adjacent cliff sides in the Pyrenees, employs a
unique and risky doubly mutualistic reproductive strategy with local
ants, according to research published Sep. 12 in the open access journal
PLOS ONE.
The researchers, led by Maria Garcia of the Pyrenean Institute of
Ecology (CSIC), found that two ant species acted as the main pollinators
for the plant, while a third species dispersed seeds. About a third of
the new seedlings censused over 17 years in vertical cliffs would come
from such dispersal, while the remaining two thirds from self-sown seeds
by the female plants.
Such a strategy is risky, because if something were to happen to the
local ant species the plant may not be able to continue reproducing, but
the authors conclude that it can be successful in this particular case
because of the plant's unusually long lifespan, in some cases reaching
over 300 years, its climatically stable habitat, and its isolation from
large herbivores.
No comments:
Post a Comment