Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39431320›Full record

ArticleAmerican journal of botany2024

Scent-mediated bee pollination and myrmecochory in an enigmatic geophyte with pyrogenic flowering and subterranean development of fleshy fruits.

Ian Kiepiel, Steven D Johnson

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in American journal of botany, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Ian KiepielCentre for Functional Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, P Bag X01, Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa.ORCID 0000-0003-4616-3270
Steven D JohnsonCentre for Functional Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, P Bag X01, Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa.ORCID 0000-0002-5114-5862

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

premiseVolatile emissions from flowers and fruits play a key role in signalling to animals responsible for pollination and seed dispersal. Here, we investigated the pollination biology and chemical ecology of reproduction in Apodolirion buchananii, an African amaryllid that flowers in a leafless state soon after grassland vegetation is burnt in the dry late-winter season.

methodsPollinators were identified through field collection and pollen loads were quantified. Floral traits including spectral reflectance and scent chemistry were documented. Bioassays using cup traps were used to test the function of floral volatiles. Fruiting biology was investigated using controlled hand-pollination experiments and chemical analysis of fruit scent. Seed germination was scored in greenhouse trials. Seed dispersal was monitored using observations and camera trapping.

resultsThe sweetly scented white flowers of A. buchananii are pollen-rewarding and pollinated mainly by a diverse assemblage of bees. Cup-trap experiments demonstrated that pollinators are attracted to phenylacetaldehyde, the dominant volatile in the floral scent. Plants are shown to be self-incompatible, and the fleshy fruits were found to emerge from the soil six months after pollination during the peak of the summer rains. Fruits emit a diverse blend of aliphatic and aromatic esters and contain large fleshy recalcitrant seeds which germinate within days of fruits splitting open. Seed dispersal by ants was recorded.

conclusionsThis first account of the reproductive biology of a species in the genus Apodolirion highlights an outcrossing mating system involving bees attracted to color and scent as well as the unusual fruiting biology and ant-mediated system of seed dispersal.

Indexed as

FlowersFruitPollinationAcetaldehydeAnimalsBeesGerminationOdorantsPollenSeed DispersalSeedsVolatile Organic CompoundsAcetaldehydephenylacetaldehydeVolatile Organic CompoundsamaryllidaceaeantsApodolirion buchananiifirefunctional traitsphenologyphenylacetaldehydeplant volatilesseed dispersalsubterranean ovary

Identifiers

PMID39431320
PMCPMC11584040

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.