Pollination biology of four co-occurring Erica species from the Cape Peninsula, South Africa

Ingram, Steven

Pollination biology of four co-occurring Erica species from the Cape Peninsula, South Africa

Bachelor Thesis

2011

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Abstract

Although pollinators have been suggested to drive speciation in the Cape flora, this has not been tested for the largest, florally diverse Cape genus Erica. Speciation studies that focus on pollination biology often use floral syndrome characters to predict a species' functional pollinator group/s. The predictive power of these techniques has come under scrutiny, and hence in-situ observations have become highly important for confirming existing pollination syndromes. Here I performed pollinator observations and recorded various floral traits of four co-flowering, co-residing Erica species in the Kalk Bay mountains, South Africa. The predictive pollination syndromes were confirmed through direct observations in the field. E. ericoides and E. globella subsp. globella were confirmed as insect pollinated plants, and E. plukenetii subsp. plukenetii and E. abietina subsp. atrorosea were confirmed as bird pollinated plants. Interesting correlations between floral traits and visitation rates are also suggested.

Keywords

Botany

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