Reproductive Ecology Of Rhodomyrtus Tomentosa (Ait.) Hassk

Rhodomyrtus tomentosa (Ait.) Hassk. is a heliophyte shrub in family Myrtaceae. It distributes natively not only in South China, but also in Philippines, Japan, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. It is a very common pioneer shrub and has been used for revegetation of degraded hilly slopes in Southern China. This species is considered as a noxious weed and was listed as Category I of invasive species by Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council. So studying reproductive ecology of R. tomentosa not only has values in theory, but also has value in practice. Several respects of the reproductive ecology in R. tomentosa were studied in our research. The main results are as follows:The species started flowering in March at Heshan Hilly Land Integrated Experimental Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangdong Province, China. The flowering period lasted about three months. Flowers opened early in the morning and lasted 2-3 days. The pollen: ovule ratio was 2662:1. The pollen remained viable for a very short period (about 12 h) after flowering.The breeding system was a mixed mating system (xenogamy and geitonogamy). The species was bee-pollinated with pollen as the floral reward. Almost all pollinators visited the flowers before 12:00 am. Amegilla floraea (Smith) Brooks and Xylocopa nasais Westwood were the most important pollinators. The reproductive output of R. tomentosa was related to light intensities under which the plants of this species inhabit.Pycnonotus sinensis Gmelin, Pycnonotus jocosus Linnaeus and Hypsipetes flavala Swinhoe were the birds that ate the fruitsof R. tomentosa and dispersed the seeds in the study area. Two species of ants, Pheidologetion diversus Jerdon and Pheidole meihuashanensis Li et Chen were observed carrying the seeds.The percentage germination of seeds from frugivorous birds' feces was higher than the seeds directly from fruits under dark condition. However, there was not significant difference between the two seed lots under light condition.That R. tomentosa is a very common pioneer shrub in the degraded hilly slopes in Southern China is attributed to its reproductive characteristics, and is also related with seed dispersal by frugivorous birds and ants.