Are the floral morphology and anatomy of Galphimia australis, an atypical neotropical Malpighiaceae, associated to a new pollination syndrome?

GOTELLI, M.; ALISCIONI, S.; KUO, P. T.; TORRETTA, J. P.

PROTOPLASMA

SPRINGER WIEN

Año: 2023 vol. 260 p. 1047 - 1062

0033-183X

Theflowers of the species of Malpighiaceae in the Neotropical Region arerelatively uniform in their morphology due to their dependence onoil-collecting bees as their main pollinators. However, many species of thegenus Galphimia seem to have acquired a different floral syndrome, lackingmarkedly zygomorphic flowers and developed elaiophores in the calyx. Likewise,these species present anthers with great development, probably in response tothe selection of pollinators that collect pollen. Galphimia australisincorporated some of these traits but also retained some residualcharacteristics typical of species pollinated by oil bees. This leads to manyquestions on how these flowers ensure their pollination. Inquiring about thereduction or modification of these characteristics allows us to understand howG. australis achieves a different pollination syndrome. In this research, wecarry out a detailed morphological and anatomical study of the flowers andpollen grain devolvement of G. australis and foral visitors were observed andcaptured. Results were analyzed in order to determine how this species changedfrom the oil-foral syndrome, typical of neotropical Malpighiaceae, to onesyndrome with pollen as the main reward.