Artículos de revistas
The gynoecium of male Anchietea pyrifolia (Violaceae): Preserved structure with a new function
Fecha
2010Registro en:
FLORA, v.205, n.7, p.429-433, 2010
0367-2530
10.1016/j.flora.2009.12.001
Autor
HOFFMANN, Matthias H.
PAULA-SOUZA, Juliana de
FLAESCHENDRAEGER, Axel
ROESER, Martin
Institución
Resumen
Structure of inflorescences and flowers and flowering behaviour are reported for the woody liana Anchietea pyrifolia (Violaceae) from Brazil. The specimen studied is grown for some decades now in the greenhouses of Halle Botanical Garden and turned out unisexually male, which adds a further example of dioecism to the family Violaceae, in which this type of sex distribution is rarely encountered. The flowers are exceptional also for the strongly asymmetric anterior petal, which represents a rare case of a species with enantiomorphic flowers pollinated by Lepidoptera. They have a fully developed gynoecium with a complicated architecture comparable to the pistil of bisexual Violaceae flowers, though without ovules. The style head is capable to release viscose liquid on tactile stimulation or pressure, which is known to act as pollen-gathering mechanism in bisexual Violaceae species with usually dry pollen and buzz-pollination. This function has switched in male A. pyrifolia to a mechanism for efficient pollen release mediated by insect pollinators from its short-lived flowers. (C) 2009 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.