Luis Giménez-Benavides

Replacement of Species Along Altitude Gradients: The Role of Branch Architecture

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Plant species typical of cold and warm habitats differ in a suite of morpho-physio-phenological traits, although their evolutionary routes have been poorly explored. Here, it is advocated that traits typical of different climate regimes can be largely driven by contrasting branch architectures. This is explored within Saxifraga. First, an investigation was carried out to determine whether series Ceratophyllae (lateral inflorescences) is segregated to lowlands compared with Pentadactylis (terminal inflorescences). Then, two altitudinal vicariants, S. trifurcata (lowland, with lateral inflorescences) and S. canaliculata (highland, with apical inflorescences), were selected. It was hypothesized that apical flowering of S. canaliculata constrains its growth period, bringing with it traits typical of short growth season plants, and conversely for S. trifurcata. METHODS The hypothesis was tested by measuring plant compactness and organ pre-formation in seven populations of these species along an altitude gradient. KEY RESULTS Most variables differed among species. Morphological variables at all scales support that the architecture of S. canaliculata generates a more compact habit. A higher number of primordia and earlier inflorescence pre-formation in S. canaliculata indicate that it begins organogenesis earlier. Data on organogenesis suggest that the different timing of inflorescence initiation may be the origin of the contrasting architectures. Within species, shoot compactness increased, and the length of lateral primordia decreased, as altitude increased. All other metrics were similar among locations of the same species at contrasting altitudes. CONCLUSIONS The hypotheses linking elevational segregation of species, architecture and pheno-morphological traits were validated at broad (gen. Saxifraga) and local (altitudinal vicariants) scales. This supports the initial idea that shoot architecture may to a large extent condition high altitude adaptive syndrome.

Diel Variation in Flower Scent Reveals Poor Consistency of Diurnal and Nocturnal Pollination Syndromes in Sileneae

The composition of flower scent and the timing of emission are crucial for chemical communication between plants and their pollinators; hence, they are key traits for the characterization of pollination syndromes. In many plants, however, plants are assigned to a syndrome based on inexpensive to measure flower traits, such as color, time of flower opening, and shape. We compared day and night scents from 31 Sileneae species and tested for quantitative and semi-quantitative differences in scent among species classified a priori as diurnal or nocturnal. As most Sileneae species are not only visited by either diurnal or nocturnal animals as predicted by their syndrome, we hypothesized that, even if flower scent were preferentially emitted during the day or at night, most species also would emit some scents during the opposing periods of the day. This phenomenon would contribute to the generalized assemblage of flower visitors usually observed in Sileneae species. We found that diel variations of scent often were not congruent with the syndrome definition, but could partially be explained by taxonomy and sampling times. Most species emitted compounds with attractive potential to insects during both the night and day. Our results highlight the current opinion that syndromes are not watertight compartments evolved to exclude some flower visitors. Thus, important information may be lost when scents are collected either during day- or night-time, depending on the a priori classification of the species as diurnal or nocturnal.