Female flowers to hail a pollinator who dropped in male-male called the pollinators and striving to be first

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K18607
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: TSUJI KAORU 京都大学, 生態学研究センター, 研究員 (40645280)
• Research Collaborator: OZAWA Rika 京都大学, 生態学研究センター, 研究員 ; TAKABAYASHI Junji 京都大学, 生態学研究センター, 教授
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ヒサカキ / 花形質 / 送粉者 / 雌雄差 / 双翅目

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we investigated (1) whether there were sexual differences in floral traits of a dioecious plant, Eurya japonica including scent and nectar components, and (2) whether pollinators differently responded to different floral sexes. For floral scent, we did not detect significant difference in ion intensities (i.e., net amount of components) of a main component, α-pinene, but that of a minor component, δ-terpinolene was higher in male flowers. For nectar component, concentration of a main component, sucrose was higher in female flowers. Pollinators spent longer time on female flowers than male flowers. From these measurements and experiments, we revealed that several floral traits of E. japonica had sexual differences and that pollinators behaved differently on male versus female flowers.

Free Research Field

生態学