Poster
Pollination Biology of Harrisia portoricensis (Cactaceae), an Endangered Caribbean Species
Registro en:
Autor
Rojas-Sandoval, Julissa
Meléndez-Ackerman, Elvia J.
Institución
Resumen
Information on the breeding system of endangered
plants is often useful piece of information for
conservation and management of wild populations.
This is so as the foraging behavior of the pollinators
and the plant breeding system are factors that may
also affect fruit-set and therefore plant reproductive
success (Boch & Waser 2001).
Harrisia portoricensis is an endangered
cactus endemic to Puerto Rico and geographically
restricted to three small Caribbean Islands located to
the west of Puerto Rico: Mona, Monito and Desecheo
(USFW 1990). The population at Mona Island is the
largest population identified to date.Little is known about the breeding system of this
cactus species but we do know that Harrisia
portoricensis appears to be genetically uniform
throughout its distribution range based on studies of
allelic variation in allozymes (Santiago-Velez 2000).
This is somewhat surprising given that most of the
columnar cacti studied so far in the tropics have been
characterized as self-incompatible hermaphrodite
plants (Valiente-Banuet et al. 1997, Fleming 2002).
Based on this general observation one would have
expected H. portoricensis individuals to be more
variable. One possibility for this lack of variation may
relate to the presence of breeding systems conducive
to inbreeding.
Here we present data on the floral traits, floral visitor,
and breeding system of H. portoricensis to address
the extent by which this cactus breeding system
promotes self-fertilization events.