Outcrossing rates in the gynomonoecious-gynodioecious species Dianthus sylvestris (Caryophyllaceae)

Abstract

Some species described as gynodioecious are truly gynomonoecious-gynodioecious. Three distinct phenotypes may be found in their natural populations-female and hermaphrodite pure-sexed plants bearing either only pistillate or perfect flowers, respectively, and mixed plants bearing both types of flowers. In one such species, Dianthus sylvestris, we investigated mating system parameters using allozyme data. Outcrossing rates and correlations of outcrossed paternity were calculated for the three types of plants and separately for pistillate and perfect flowers on mixed plants. The mean outcrossing rate for the population was t(m) ± SD = 0.885 ± 0.032. Females were more outcrossed than hermaphrodites (0.987 ± 0.112 and 0.790 ± 0.076, respectively), whereas mixed plants were not significantly more or less outcrossed than hermaphrodites (0.840 ± 0.060). Within mixed plants, perfect flowers showed an intermediate outcrossing rate (0.898 ± 0.057), whereas pistillate flowers were as selfed as perfect flowers on hermaphrodite plants (0.782 ± 0.111). Family estimates of outcrossing rates were highly variable. Globally, no biparental inbreeding was detected in this species, and there was a mean of 61.5 ± 19.9% of full-sibs within families. Floral dimorphism between small pistillate and large perfect flowers together with pollinator preference for larger flowers could explain the observed patterns for both mating parameters. The advantages of gynomonoecy-gynodioecy are discussed. We conclude that mixed plants do not reduce selfing for all flowers on a plant, but perfect flowers on these plants seem to have an outcrossing advantage.