Structural diversity of elaiophores in Argentine species of Malpighiaceae: morphology, anatomy, and interaction with pollinators

S.S. ALISCIONI.; N.E. GOMIZ; J.I. AGÜERO; TORRETTA, JUAN PABLO

PROTOPLASMA

SPRINGER WIEN

Lugar: Viena; Año: 2022 vol. 259 p. 789 - 807

0033-183X

MostNeotropical Malpighiaceae species are characterized by having zygomorphicflowers and oil glands in the sepals called elaiophores; these floralcharacteristics are associated with a particular pollination syndrome throughoil-collecting bees. This work proposes a study about the structuralcharacteristics of elaiophores in 18 species of Malpighiaceae present in Argentina.The main objectives are to describe the morphology and anatomy of theelaiophores, to detect variation in the number of glands, to comparesimilarities or differences in elaiophores of species belonging to differentlineages, and to know about the potential pollinators and their associationwith the structural traits of the elaiophores. The morphology and the anatomywere studied using traditional methods of scanning electron and bright-fieldmicroscopes. Field trips were carried out to capture oil-collecting bee specieson flowers, in different natural populations. Different measurements were takenin the flowers, elaiophores, and oil-collecting bees and were statisticallyanalyzed. Although elaiophores showed a common pattern, some particularities innumber, morphology, and anatomy were detected; few of these seem to berestricted to some groups of species phylogenetically related. As regardspollinators, a positive tendency was observed between the size of the flowers,elaiophores, and oil-collecting bees. However, the thickness of the cuticlepresented a negative association with the size of the elaiophore andconsequently with the floral diameter, which could be presumably related to theforaging behavior and/or the structure of oil-collecting apparatus of the beespecies.