In other to study the effects of salicylic acid on reproductive characters of ‘Elberta’ Peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) tree, an experiment was carried out based on randomized complete blocks design with four replications in commercial orchard, Kerman, Iran. The application of three concentrations of salicylic acid 0 (control), 1and 2 mM at swollen bud stage were used. Results showed that appl...

BACKGROUND Tomato is sensitive to ozone. Fruit growth and composition are altered under ozone stress by modification of reproductive development. Fifty-one-day-old plants were exposed to three concentrations of ozone (200, 350 and 500 µg m(-3)) for 4 h. RESULTS Ozone reduced well-developed fruit number and fruit size, but it did not significantly affect flowering rate and fruit setting rate. ...

BACKGROUND Insect pollinator abundance, in particular that of bees, has been shown to be high where there is a super-abundance of floral resources; for example in association with mass-flowering crops and also in gardens where flowering plants are often densely planted. Since land management affects pollinator numbers, it is also likely to affect the resultant pollination of plants growing in t...

It is generally recommended that broadleaf plants in and around peach orchards must be controlled to minimize damage from stink bugs (Pentatomidae) and plant bugs (Lygus spp.). In research orchards located in West Virginia, USA, I have been growing peach trees as a monoculture or interplanted with apple, with and without the presence of broadleaf flowering plants. The flowering plants were used...

Although flowering in mature fruit trees is recurrent, floral induction can be strongly inhibited by concurrent fruiting, leading to a pattern of irregular fruiting across consecutive years referred to as biennial bearing. The genetic determinants of biennial bearing in apple were investigated using the 114 flowering individuals from an F(1) population of 122 genotypes, from a 'Starkrimson' (st...

We studied the relative role of inflorescence traits, flowering synchrony, and pollination context for infructescence and fruit initiation in two Spanish populations of Arum italicum, a species in which inflorescences are the pollination unit. In this species, a specialized inflorescence organ, the appendix, is important for pollinator attraction. However, the short floral longevity and the pro...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Outcrossing animal-pollinated plants, particularly non-rewarding species, often experience pollinator limitation to reproduction. Pollinator visitation is affected by various factors, and it is hypothesized that reproduction in non-rewarding plants would benefit from low spatial flower abundance and asynchronous flowering. In order to test this hypothesis, the influence of s...

Landscape-wide mass-flowering of oilseed rape (canola Brassica napus) can considerably affect wild bee communities and pollination success of wild plants. We aimed to assess the impact of oilseed rape on the pollination of wild plants and bee abundance during and after oilseed-rape bloom, including effects on crop-noncrop spillover at landscape and adjacent-field scales. We focused on two shrub...