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Plant evolution in the direction of specialized pollination is a common phenomenon, as plants evolve floral morphology that facilitates pollination by their most abundant and efficient pollinators. It is in this manner that pollination syndromes, distinct sets of floral characteristics to attract and facilitate pollination by a distinct set of pollinators, are considered to have arisen. The purpose of this study is to determine whether pollination syndromes can be detected based on several floral traits in species of the family Rubiaceae that are found in and around the Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot (LFDP) of northeastern Puerto Rico, compare syndromes found to classic pollination syndromes, and to determine whether there is a correlation between flower morphology and flower visitors.
Results/Conclusions
Observations of flower visitors (as a means of indicating possible pollinators), that which still continues, indicates varying degrees of specialization in the plant species of study. Four plant species demonstrated no floral visitors and the capability of producing fruit when flowers were excluded from potential pollinators. Preliminary multidimensional scaling analysis of floral traits of field specimens indicated some association between position in multivariate space and flower visitors, despite the fact that clear aggregation of species into pollination syndromes was not observed. As would be expected, species that were generalist as decided from floral observations tended to occupy intermediate points in the analysis. Morphological data collected in the field that was complemented by measurements taken from herbarium specimens of additional species showed similar trends in multivariate space, with presumably generalist species found separate from presumably butterfly pollinated species, and various outliers representing species possibly adapted for pollination by either larger Hymenoptera, Sphingid moths, or hummingbirds.
