By Yu & Muchhala
Animal pollinators are critical for the reproduction of most flowering plants. Because different animals may deposit more or less pollen on a flower based on their body size and how often they visit flowers, it is important to understand how these differences can affect plant reproduction. One important aspect of pollination is whether a pollinator deposits pollen from one or more fathers, because having more fathers to choose from can increase the likelihood of having more fit offspring.
In our study, we test how the number of fathers donating pollen affects offspring growth rates by pollinating prairie onion flowers with pollen mixtures with either one, two, or three fathers. We found that pollen mixtures with a greater number of fathers led to a greater number of seeds that germinated into seedlings but also led to seedlings that grew more slowly. This is potentially explained with a trade-off between quality of seedling vs. number of seedlings.
These effects indicate that the composition of pollen mixtures deposited by pollinators can have significant effects on plant populations and that understanding differences in animal pollination will help understand plant population patterns.
Read the scientific publication in JPE.
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