Sexual dimorphism in androdioecious Mercurialis annua, a wind-pollinated herb

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_8A5B6501FC71
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Sexual dimorphism in androdioecious Mercurialis annua, a wind-pollinated herb
Journal
International Journal of Plant Sciences
Author(s)
Hesse E, Pannell J.R.
ISSN
1058-5893
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2011
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
172
Number
1
Pages
49-59
Language
english
Abstract
Gender-dimorphic species often display a degree of sexual dimorphism in terms of life-history traits, yet little is known about dimorphism in androdioecious plants. Here we investigate sexual dimorphism in an androdioecious population of the wind-pollinated herb Mercurialis annua by comparing the resource allocation strategies of males and hermaphrodites grown under different nutrient-availability and competitive regimes. We found that males displayed smaller aboveground vegetative sizes than did hermaphrodites, but neither soil nutrient availability nor competition had a strong independent effect on their relative sizes. Plants adjusted their relative reproductive investment in response to nutrient availability. Specifically, hermaphrodites increased their reproductive allocation when growing in poor soils, whereas males displayed the opposite response. Finally, hermaphrodites were strongly female biased in their sex allocation, and this was more pronounced in nutrient-poor soils. To conclude, sexual dimorphism in androdioecious M. annua shares many features with dioecious and gynodioecious species, particularly wind-pollinated herbs. However, the direction of sex-allocation reaction norms displayed by hermaphrodites of M. annua differs from that documented for several insect-pollinated gynodioecious species, hinting at the importance of either the pollination mode or the sexual system as a context of selection shaping the reproductive strategy of plants with both male and female functions.
Keywords
competition, reproductive allocation, sex allocation, sexual dimorphism, trade-offs, wind pollination
Web of science
Create date
14/09/2011 7:44
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:49
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