ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF IPOMOPSIS AGGREGATA NECTAR PRODUCTION: OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENT IN THE FIELD.

Abstract

Production of floral nectar is generally thought to be an adaptation that increases plant fitness by altering pollinator behavior, and therefore pollination success. To test this hypothesis, I investigated the effects of floral nectar production rate on pollination success of the hermaphroditic plant Ipomopsis aggregata (Polemoniaceae). Success through male function (estimated by the export of fluorescent dyes) was significantly greater for plants with naturally high nectar production rates than for nearby plants with low nectar production rates, whereas success through female function (receipt of fluorescent dye) was unrelated to nectar production rate. Experimental addition of artificial nectar also produced a significant increase in male function success and no increase in several estimates of female function success. Observations confirmed that hummingbirds probed a larger proportion of flowers on plants that received supplemental nectar, as they do in response to natural variation in nectar production. The concordance of results across these observational and experimental studies indicates that nectar production acts primarily to increase pollination success through male function for this species.