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Low fruit set in an endangered tree: pollination by exotic bumblebees and pollen resource for relictual native bees

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Abstract

Many endangered plants are susceptible to pollination failure due to their rareness. We studied the threatened Chilean tree Legrandia concinna (Myrtaceae) with melittophilous pollen-only flowers and the pollen loads of Manuelia postica and asked: Do bees guarantee fruit set? What is the role of the endangered plant as a pollen source for M. postica? Only bees of the relictual endemic Manuelia postica and introduced Bombus terrestris and honeybees visited the flowers. Overall flower visitation was very low and so was fruit set. Exotic B. terrestris was the only effective pollinator. The small native M. postica scarcely contributed to pollination and mainly used pollen of L. concinna to rear offspring in the resource-poor Nothofagus forest: pollen of 19 flowers was sufficient to feed a single larvae. Reintroduction of trees of L. concinna as a measure of species protection would also benefit the maintenance of native populations of M. postica. We assume that the introduced bumblebees displaced native Bombus dahlbomii as pollinators of this red list tree species.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Fundação de Parques Municipais e Zoobotânica (FPMZB) and the graduate course in Ecologia, Conservação e Manejo de Vida Silestre (ECMVS) of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais for logistic support, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that considerably improved the manuscript. The research received financial support from Gobierno Regional del Maule (FIC-R BIP N 30.387.076-0) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq (Universal 436095/2018-1). We also thank for the research grant from CNPq (311935/2018-4) to CS.

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  1. Jardim Botânico da Fundação de Parques Municipais e Zoobotânica, Avenida Otacílio Negrão de Lima, 8000, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, 31365-450, Brazil

    Juliana Ordones Rego

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Conservação e Manejo de Vida Silvestre, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte, 31270-910, Brazil

    Juliana Ordones Rego

  3. Laboratório Plebeia – Ecologia de Abelhas e de Polinização, Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte, 31270-910, Brazil

    Clemens Schlindwein

  4. Laboratorio de Ecología de Abejas, Facultad de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Católica del Maule, Avenida San Miguel, 3605, Talca, Maule, Chile

    Ruben Garrido & Victor H. Monzón

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  1. Juliana Ordones Rego
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JOR, CS and VHM conceived the research, designed experiments and interpreted the data; JOR and RG performed the experiments; JOR and CS wrote the paper. All authors performed analyses, participated in revisions, and read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Clemens Schlindwein.

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Rego, J.O., Schlindwein, C., Garrido, R. et al. Low fruit set in an endangered tree: pollination by exotic bumblebees and pollen resource for relictual native bees. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 15, 491–501 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-021-09841-5

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