Abstract
ABSTRACT Aquatic macrophytes are important components of freshwater ecosystems, of which Cyperaceae is the most diverse family. Many species of Cyperaceae form dense populations along lake margins of the southern coast of Brazil, but little is known about their sexual reproductive strategies. We characterized the reproductive life cycle of Eleocharis laeviglumis, an abundant emergent macrophyte of coastal wetlands in southern Brazil, by assessing its reproductive phenophases and estimating the number of its flowers and potentially viable fruits per inflorescence in a natural population. We also tested seed germinability and vigor for a period of four months during a single reproductive season. The species possesses dichogamous and protogynous spikelets with an average duration of 34 days (pre-anthesis, 1.7 d; anthesis, 6.9 d; fruit maturation, 22.3 d; fruit dispersion, 3.2 d). More than half of the flowers (62.2 %) developed into fruits, while only 5.5 % of the seeds germinated. Germinability and vigor decreased during the reproductive season. Some culms probably originate from asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction of clones. For restoration purposes, we suggest that E. laeviglumis should be propagated by sowing seeds collected at the beginning of the reproductive season, along with the transplantation of rhizomes.
Highlights
Cyperaceae is the third largest monocot family (Govaerts et al 2007), and is widely dispersed around the globe but concentrated in the tropics (Goetghebeur 1998)
Little is known about breeding systems in Cyperaceae, both auto-compatibility (Cladium jamaicense, Snyder & Richards 2005) and autoincompatibility (Scirpus maritimus, Charpentier et al 2000; Rhynchospora ciliata, Costa & Machado 2012) have been previously described for the family
We found that each E. laeviglumis spikelet produced on average 57.2 flowers, which differs from the 20-50 flowers per spikelet reported by Trevisan & Boldrini (2006)
Summary
Cyperaceae is the third largest monocot family (Govaerts et al 2007), and is widely dispersed around the globe but concentrated in the tropics (Goetghebeur 1998). Species possess leaves with closed sheaths, tiny and discrete wind-pollinated flowers with various arrangements on spikelets, and abundant and regular diaspore production (Goetghebeur 1998; Leck & Schütz 2005). The majority of macrophyte species of Cyperaceae are emergent (Cook et al 1974), with the genus Eleocharis being one of the most diverse genera in Brazil (Alves et al 2009). Eleocharis is distinguished from other Cyperaceae genera by possessing culms with a single terminal spikelet, leaves reduced to Camila Luisa Bernhardt Demeda, Guilherme Dubal dos Santos Seger, Neusa Steiner and Rafael Trevisan tubular sheaths in the culm base, and a thick and persistent stylopodium on the fruit (Goetghebeur 1998; Trevisan & Boldrini 2008)
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