Allocation of Reproductive Effort to the Male and Female Strategies in Wind-Pollinated Plants

Authors

Cliff A. Lemen, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

April 1980

Comments

Published in Oecologia (Berlin) 45 (1980), pp. 156–159. Copyright © 1980 by Springer-Verlag. Used by permission. http://springerlink.metapress.com/content/1432-1939/

Abstract

Amaranthus and several other wind-pollinated species of plants are used to test some of the theoretical models of relative reproductive effort towards the male and female sexes. Consistent with these models, in self-compatible, monoecious Amaranthus, Chenopodium, Digitaria, Setaria, and Lepidium, female effort represented over 90% of the total reproductive effort. Also consistent with predictions, Lolium, a self-incompatible wind-pollinated species, was found to have about equal male and female effort. A method is described here that should prove useful in quantifying male and female effort in both wind and insect-pollinated species of plants.