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Botanical Society of America, American Journal of Botany, 8(94), p. 1352-1359

DOI: 10.3732/ajb.94.8.1352

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Pollination patterns limit hybridization between two sympatric species of Narcissus (Amaryllidaceae)

Journal article published in 2007 by Isabel Marques ORCID, A. Rossello-Graell, David Draper ORCID, José M. Iriondo
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Natural hybrids between rare and common sympatric species are commonly eradicated to avoid the potential extinction of the rare species, although there is currently no clear predictive framework to quantify this risk. As hybrids can have intrinsic value as new evolutionary pathways, further knowledge on the factors controlling hybridization is needed. In this study we evaluated the role of pollination patterns in hybridization events in two sympatric populations of Narcissus cavanillesii and N. serotinus in Portugal. Narcissus cavanillesii is a rare species, while N. serotinus is widely distributed across the Mediterranean. The hybrid, N. ×perezlarae, is quite frequent in southeastern Spain but is scarce in Portugal. Reciprocal manual crossings confirmed compatibility between the two species, although hybridization was more successful when N. cavanillesii participated as female. Narcissus cavanillesii and N. serotinus only shared one pollinator, Megachile sp. (Hymenoptera), which had low visitation rates and high flower constancy. No single isolation mechanism was fully effective in preventing hybridization. Temporal displacement of flowering peaks, strong pollinator specificity, and high flower constancy in the shared pollinator all contributed to limiting hybridization in this site. In other sympatric occurrences, different phenological windows and pollination assemblages may allow greater frequency of the hybrid.