Authors: T Tscheulin T Petanidou
Publish Date: 2012/08/07
Volume: 15, Issue: 2, Pages: 385-393
Abstract
Invasive plants can impact biodiversity and ecosystem functioning by displacing native plants and crop species due to competition for space nutrients water and light The presence of coflowering invasives has also been shown to affect some native plants through the reduction in pollinator visitation or through the deposition of heterospecific pollen on the native’s stigmas leading to stigma clogging We examined the impact of the invasive plant Solanum elaeagnifolium Cavanilles silverleafed nightshade native to South and Central America and Southwestern parts of North America on the seed set of the native Glaucium flavum Crantz yellowhorned poppy on Lesvos Island Greece To do this we measured seed set and visitation rates to G flavum before and after the placement of potted individuals of the invasive near the native plants In addition we handcrossed G flavum flowers with superoptimal amounts of conspecific pollen bagged flowers to measure the rate of spontaneous selfing and applied selfpollen to measure selfcompatibility of G flavum The handselfing treatment resulted in very low seed set which indicates that G flavum is to a large degree selfincompatible and highlights the plant’s need for insectmediated outcrossing We show that the presence of the invasive significantly enhanced pollen limitation although the overall visitation rates were not reduced and that this increase is due to a reduction in honeybee visitation in the presence of the invasive resulting in reduced pollination
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