Scholarlink

<p>Asia is home to a diverse array of sunbird species. However, experimentally confirmed cases of sunbird pollination remain rare. <i>Colquhounia elegans</i> has red scentless flowers with a long narrow corolla tube, which likely suggests a pollination system involving sunbird species with similar bill morphologies in its natural range. We observed its floral visitors, tested their pollination effectiveness, conducted pollination treatments to document the breeding system and pollen limitation, and quantified floral traits. The main floral visitor was the Black-throated Sunbird <i>Aethopyga saturata</i>, with the Orange-bellied Leafbird <i>Chloropsis hardwickii</i> as a rare visitor. The sunbird hovered to extract nectar during 16.3–24.1% of visits, perching for the rest of the time, and could not visit more than three flowers successively during each hovering attempt. It delivered pollen grains onto the stigmas during most visits. <i>Colquhounia elegans</i> is highly self-compatible but completely reliant on pollinators for seed production and showed no significant pollen limitation. The floral tube was around 24 mm long, considerably exceeding flowers with short-billed generalist bird pollinators in Asia. The shape of the floral reflectance is similar to that of other bird-pollinated flowers, but the reflectance was overall rather low. It produces small amounts of diluted nectar. Our study reports a new case of specialized sunbird pollination in the flora of Asia and in the Old World Lamiales.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Specialized sunbird pollination in Colquhounia elegans (Lamiaceae): limited hovering and distinctive nectar properties

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年9月24日

查看全文
  • Yang Huang,
  • Mei-Ying Huang,
  • Yao Ning,
  • Chang-Qiu Liu,
  • Wen-Yan Ge,
  • Xiao-Zhen Zhu

摘要

Asia is home to a diverse array of sunbird species. However, experimentally confirmed cases of sunbird pollination remain rare. Colquhounia elegans has red scentless flowers with a long narrow corolla tube, which likely suggests a pollination system involving sunbird species with similar bill morphologies in its natural range. We observed its floral visitors, tested their pollination effectiveness, conducted pollination treatments to document the breeding system and pollen limitation, and quantified floral traits. The main floral visitor was the Black-throated Sunbird Aethopyga saturata, with the Orange-bellied Leafbird Chloropsis hardwickii as a rare visitor. The sunbird hovered to extract nectar during 16.3–24.1% of visits, perching for the rest of the time, and could not visit more than three flowers successively during each hovering attempt. It delivered pollen grains onto the stigmas during most visits. Colquhounia elegans is highly self-compatible but completely reliant on pollinators for seed production and showed no significant pollen limitation. The floral tube was around 24 mm long, considerably exceeding flowers with short-billed generalist bird pollinators in Asia. The shape of the floral reflectance is similar to that of other bird-pollinated flowers, but the reflectance was overall rather low. It produces small amounts of diluted nectar. Our study reports a new case of specialized sunbird pollination in the flora of Asia and in the Old World Lamiales.