Historically, explanations for the evolution of floral traits that reduce self-fertilization have tended to focus on selection to avoid inbreeding depression. However, there is growing support for the hypothesis that such traits also play a role in promoting efficient pollen dispersal by reducing anther-stigma interference. The relative importance of these two selective pressures is currently a...

Dichogamy, the temporal separation of male and female function, is widespread among angiosperms, yet its causes and consequences are not well understood. Two forms of dichogamy exist: protandry, in which pollen dispersal precedes stigma receptivity, and protogyny, in which the reverse occurs. Species-level comparative studies show that protandrous species tend to be pollinated by bees or flies,...

The widespread presence of incomplete dichogamy (i.e., partial separation in time between male and female phases) in flowering plants is a long-standing question in floral evolution. In this study, we proposed four scenarios in which depending on the particular combination of pollen limitation and inbreeding depression, the presence of complete dichogamy, incomplete dichogamy, or adichogamy may...

BACKGROUND Plant species have several mechanisms to avoid selfing such as dichogamy or a self-incompatibility response. Dichogamy in a single flower may reduce autogamy but, to avoid geitonogamy, plants must show flowering synchronization among all their flowers (i.e. synchronous dichogamy). It is hypothesized that one species would not simultaneously show synchronous dichogamy and self-incompa...

The evolution of dioecy from hermaphroditism allows for avoidance self-pollination, and its evolutionary background has been investigated both experimentally theoretically since it was first proposed by Darwin. To reproduce this evolution, we screened hermaphroditic mutants Silene latifolia using heavy-ion beam or γ-ray irradiation characterized the phenotypes their floral organs. Our scatterpl...

In plants whose flowers develop in a sequence, different flowers may exhibit temporal variation in pollen donation and receipt such that the fitness contributions through male and female functions can vary among flowers. Dichogamy, or directional pollinator movements within inflorescences, can create situations where flowers in different stages in the sequence may differ in the numbers of flowe...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY A variety of mechanisms to prevent inbreeding have arisen in different angiosperm taxa during plant evolution. In early-divergent angiosperms, a widespread system is dichogamy, in which female and male structures do not mature simultaneously, thus encouraging cross pollination. While this system is common in early-divergent angiosperms, it is less widespread in more recentl...