Abstract

Both in situ and ex situ conservation are important strategies for protecting threatened plant species. Nevertheless, the success of conservation depends on whether the plant species can naturally regenerate and accomplish its life cycle over a long-term. Here we studied the pollination biology of the threatened species Hibiscus aridicola, Amorphophallus albus, Stemona parviflora and S. japonica aiming to get data about pollination strategies, pollinators as well as mating systems. These experiments were performed at Kunming Botanical Garden (KBG) for ex situ and the plant species’ natural habitat for in situ conservation. The results indicated that H. aridicola is self-compatible and had pollinators under both ex situ and in situ conditions. The other three species are all self-incompatible and a limited number of pollinators for S. parviflora and S. japonica were observed at cultivated and natural habitats. Amorphophallus albus had no pollinators at KBG but a large number of rove beetles (Atheta sp.) could be observed in the plant species’ natural habitat. This resulted in a high fruit set under natural conditions (73.3%, n = 30). The results showed clearly, that appropriate pollinators for the four plant species are not present all the time and all localities, which further influences the reproduction success of a plant species. Hence, for a successful conservation, it is vital to assess the species reproduction strategy prior deciding whether in situ and/or ex situ conservation should be carried out.

中文翻译：

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四种濒危植物的原位和异位授粉生物学及其保护意义

摘要

原生境保护和非原生境保护都是保护濒危植物的重要策略。然而，保护的成功取决于植物物种是否可以长期自然再生并完成其生命周期。在这里，我们研究了濒危物种芙蓉（Hibiscus aridicola），魔芋（Amorphophallus albus），细叶天花（Smonona parviflora）和日本粳稻（S. japonica）的授粉生物学，旨在获得有关授粉策略，授粉媒介和交配系统的数据。这些实验是在昆明植物园（KBG）进行非原生境，并在植物物种的自然栖息地进行原生境保护。结果表明，H。aridicola具有自相容性，并且在异地和原地条件下都具有传粉媒介。其他三个物种都是自交不亲和的，在耕地和自然栖息地中观察到少量的小花链球菌和粳稻的传粉媒介。魔芋在KBG上没有传粉媒介，但在植物物种的自然栖息地中可以观察到大量的ve甲（Atheta sp。）。这导致在自然条件下结实率高（73.3％，n = 30）。结果清楚地表明，并非始终存在针对所有四种植物的合适的传粉媒介，而这在所有地区都没有，这进一步影响了植物的繁殖成功。因此，对于成功的保护，至关重要的是在决定是否应进行原位和/或异位保护之前，评估物种繁殖策略。