The Pollination of Trimenia moorei (Trimeniaceae): Florals Volatiles, Insect/Wind Pollen Vectors and Stigmatic Self-incompatability in a Basal Angiosperm

Abstract

Trimenia moorei (Oliv.) Philipson is an andromonoecious liane with >0·40 of the total flower buds maturing as bisexual flowers. Male and bisexual flowers are strongly scented with pollen, anther sacs and receptacle scars testing positively for volatile emissions. Scent analyses detect over 20 components. The major fatty acid derivative is 8-heptadecene, and 2-phenylethanol dominates the benzenoids. While hover-flies in the genera Melangyna and Triglyphus contact the stigma with their probosces, the stigma secretes no free-flowing, edible fluids. Copious pollen is the only edible reward consumed by hover-flies (Syprhidae), sawflies (Pergidae) and bees in the families Apidae, Colletidae and Halictidae. All these insects carried pollen of T. moorei on their heads, legs and thoraces and female bees in the genera Apis, Exoneura, Leioproctus and Lasioglossum stored pollen on their hind legs. Pollen traps also indicate that pollen is shed directly into the air, permitting wind pollination. When bisexual flower buds are bagged (isolated from insect foragers) on the liane then subjected to a series of hand-pollination experiments after perianth segments open, the structural analyses of pollen–carpel interactions indicate that T. moorei has a trichome-rich dry-type stigma with an early-acting self-incompatibility (SI) system. Bicellular pollen grains deposited on stigmas belonging to the same plant germinate but fail to penetrate intercellular spaces, while grains deposited following cross-pollination reach the ovule within 24 h. Fluorescence analyses of 76 carpels collected at random from unbagged (open-pollinated) flowers on five plants indicates that at least 64 % of carpels are cross-pollinated in situ. Trimenia moorei is the first species within the ANITA group, and second within reilictual-basal angiosperm lineages, to exhibit stigmatic SI in combination with dry-type stigma and bicellular pollen, a condition once considered to be atypical for angiosperms as a whole but now known to be present in numerous taxa.