&lt;b&gt;On the reproductive ecology of &lt;I&gt;Premna latifolia&lt;/I&gt; L. and &lt;I&gt;Premna tomentosa&lt;/I&gt; Willd. (Lamiaceae)&lt;/b&gt;

B Dileepu Kumar,D Sandhya Deepika,A.J Solomon Raju

doi:10.11609/jott.3201.10.1.11105-11125

Abstract

Premna latifolia and Premna tomentosa shed their foliage during winter but produce foliage at different periods to avoid competition for nutrients, P. latifolia during the dry season while P. tomentosa during the wet season. Flowering also occurs at different seasons, P. latifolia during the wet season and P. tomentosa during the dry season. The flowering period of P. latifolia is comparatively longer than P. tomentosa; however, both of them display profuse flowering for 2–3 weeks only. The flowers are of gullet type, weakly bilabiate, and the stamens and stigma are situated near the upper corolla lip and are dichogamous, herkogamous and facultatively xenogamous in both species. In P. latifolia, the pollinators are wasps and butterflies while in P. tomentosa, in addition to wasps and butterflies, the bees and flies are also pollinators. Camponotus ants rob the nectar of P. latifolia by removing the entire corolla together with stamens and sometimes also with the style and stigma. Both the species display ornithochory, anthropochory and anemochory. The seeds germinate during wet season in both the species irrespective of their time of dispersal but their continued growth depends on the soil nutrient and moisture environment.

Highlights

The family Lamiaceae shows a wide spectrum of specialization in pollination Huck 1992, with some species displaying classical examples of generalization Herrera 1989, while other species appear to be fairly specialized Nilsson et al 1985 Wester & Cla enBockho 2006a,b
Sternotribic pollination is most naturally performed by dipterans such as syrphids and primitive hymenopterans whereas nototribic pollination is performed by advanced hymenopterans, especially bees van der Pijl 1972 Beker et al 1989
The present study indicated that P. latifolia and P. tomentosa have bi-lipped calyx consisting of 2-lobed upper lip and 3-lobed lower lip but they are not clearly bilabiate as in typical Lamiaceae owers

Summary

Introduction

The family Lamiaceae shows a wide spectrum of specialization in pollination Huck 1992 , with some species displaying classical examples of generalization Herrera 1989 , while other species appear to be fairly specialized Nilsson et al 1985 Wester & Cla enBockho 2006a,b. Sternotribic pollination is most naturally performed by dipterans such as syrphids and primitive hymenopterans whereas nototribic pollination is performed by advanced hymenopterans, especially bees van der Pijl 1972 Beker et al 1989. In this family, dichogamy, herkogamy and selfcompatibility are widespread Owens & bera-Jimenez 1992. The species studied by them, display zoochory especially endozoochory , myrmecochory, anemochory, barochory and hydrochory, and zoochory has been found to be the dominant mode of seed dispersal This information suggests that a few species of Lamiaceae have been studied in detail for their reproductive biology despite it being one of the commercially important families. This state of information warrants the study of the reproductive biology of individual species of Lamiaceae to understand their sexual reproduction and take measures for the protection of their habitats along with their pollinators and seed dispersers

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion