Elevational and temporal patterns of pollination success in distylous and homostylous buckwheats (Fagopyrum) in the Hengduan Mountains

Reproductive strategies of sexually dimorphic plants vary in response to the environment. Here, we ask whether the sexual systems of Fagopyrum species (i.e., selfing homostylous and out-crossing distylous) represent distinct adaptive strategies to increase reproductive success in changing alpine environments. To answer this question, we determined how spatial and temporal factors (e.g., elevation and peak flowering time) affect reproductive success (i.e., stigmatic pollen load) in nine wild Fagopyrum species (seven distylous and two homostylous) among 28 populations along an elevation gradient of 1299–3315m in the Hengduan Mountains, southwestern China. We also observed pollinators and conducted hundreds of hand pollinations to investigate inter/intra- morph compatibility, self-compatibility and pollen limitation in four Fagopyrum species (two distylous and two homostylous). We found that Fagopyrum species at higher elevation generally had bigger flowers and more stigmatic pollen loads; late-flowering individuals had smaller flowers and lower pollen deposition. Stigmatic pollen deposition was more variable in distylous species than in homostylous species. Although seed set was not pollen-limited in all species, we found that fruit set was much lower in distylous species, which rely on frequent pollinator visits, than in homostylous species capable of autonomous self-pollination. Our findings that pollination success increases at high elevations and decreases during the flowering season suggest that distylous and homostylous species have spatially and temporally distinct reproductive strategies related to environment-dependent pollinator activity.