Pollination Biology And Breeding System Of The Endangered Chinese Endemic Kingdonia Uniflora (Ranunculaceae)

Kingdonia uniflora Balf. f. et W. W. Smith is an endangered and protective species endemic to China. The studing result of the characteristics of pollination biology, sexual reproduction type in the breeding system, and the pollen germination of the species were reported in the present paper.1. The floral morphology of Kingdonia unifloraThe following floral characteristics are from the statistic results of 1453 flowers. The flower of K. uniflora is solitary with a pedicel 7-12cm in length, bisexual, and regular, 9±1.2mm in diameter,. There are (4-) 5-6 (-9) yellow-green tepals. The androecium is consisted of outside sterile and inside fertile stamens. The sterile stamens are 6-13 in number and each of them has a dilative head with a groove in the inner side. The surface cells of the groove are secretive (Fig. V: 1). The fertile stamens are 5-8 in number and have purpure anthers. The gynoecium is consisted of 3-10 free carpels (Fig. 1:2).2. The characteristics of pollination biologyThe results about the pollination biology characteristics of K. uniflora are revealed, through the field observation and the SEM. The flowers are visited by 7 species of insects that belong to Collembola, Hymenoptera, Homoptera, and Diptera in the experiment. The visiting time and frequency of each insect is different. The main pollinators of K. uniflora are Myzus persicae Sulzer, Sitobion miscanth L. and a species of Braconidae that can not be identified exactly. Although the insects take a few pollens on their bodies, the high visiting frequency remedies the insufficiency.The results of field observation show that the activities of insects are influenced by temperature and weather. The fitting temperature of insects activity was 20 ℃ to 25 ℃. The visiting frequency of insects is higher in sunny days than in cloudy and rainy days. Besides this, with the altitude of the K. uniflora population changing, the kind of insects...