Abstract

Caesalpinia crista L., commanly known as Gray Nicker, is an oligohaline mangrove associate confined to landward marginal areas of the Coringa Mangrove Forest, Andhra Pradesh, India. The flowering occurs during the wet season from June to November. The flowers are hermaphroditic, self-compatible and exhibit a mixed breeding system. The floral characteristics that constitute melittophilous pollination syndrome include diurnal anthesis, slight fragrance, zygomorphy, yellow petals, with a flag petal displaying a conspicuous nectar guide, and the presence of nectar with a high sugar concentration. Extra-floral nectar along the rachis is an additional attractant and is easily perceivable by bees. The plant is pollinated almost exclusively by bees, especially carpenter bees. The floral characteristics such as free petals, fully exposed stamens with dry and powdery pollen grains and hairy stigma facilitate anemophily which is effective due to high winds during the rainy season. The prolific growth and near synchronous flowering at population level contribute to pollen availability in huge quantities and enable anemophily as an effective mode of pollination. The functionality of melittophily and anemophily together constitutes ambophily. Hand-pollination experiments indicated that the plant is principally out-crossing. The natural fruit set does not exceed 10%; this lowest percentage could be partly due to flower-feeding by the beetle, Mylabris phalerata. The fruits are indehiscent, 1-seeded, which are buoyant and are not dispersed far away from the parental sites. The viable seeds produce new plants in the vicinity of parental plants during the rainy season. This plant builds up its population as small patches or in pure stands and hence is important in building landward mangrove cover.

Highlights

  • Caesalpinia is a genus of Caesalpiniaceae family

  • The details of pollination ecology are not available and the present study was contemplated with the objective of providing floral biology, breeding system, pollination system, and fruiting aspects of C. crista in order to understand the ability of this species to survive and form its population in the landward areas of Coringa mangrove forest in India

  • In Caesalpinia genus, only two species, namely, C. bonduc and C. crista extend their distribution into beach vegetation and are frequent mangrove associates

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Caesalpinia is a genus of Caesalpiniaceae family It is pantropical with 120–150 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas, but the study of the pollination ecology of the genus is so far limited to the New World species (Lewis 1998). In the Caesalpinia genus, only two species, namely, C. bonduc (Gray Nicker) and C. crista (Gray Nicker) extend into beach vegetation and are frequently found to be mangrove associates; one is pantropical and the other Asian. The details of pollination ecology are not available and the present study was contemplated with the objective of providing floral biology, breeding system, pollination system, and fruiting aspects of C. crista in order to understand the ability of this species to survive and form its population in the landward areas of Coringa mangrove forest in India

Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call