Seasonal Changes in Sexual Allocation within Flowers of Chelidonium majus ( Papaveraceae )

애기똥풀 ( 양귀비과 ) 꽃에서 일어나는 성적자원 분배의 계절적 변화

Seasonal variation in size and number of floral structures was examined in two massachusetts populations of chelidonium major, a self-compatible herb. All floral charcters except for anther number per flower declind significantly during a 3 week period. However, temporal patterns were not identical among characters or between popolations. The result indicate that floral characters varied in conjunction with flower diameter,but that the pattern of changes in floral characters in response to environments may not be easy to predict. Principal components analysis was conducted to environments may not be easy to predict. principal compenents analysis was conducted tl identify the functional relationship among floral male function, and female function, respectively, perhaps reflecting the functional distinction of floral characters. Based on this pattern, the relative allocation to sexual structures within flowers was examined: male allocation was relatively greater than female allocation eary or in the middle of flowering season, depending upon populations. Temporalvariation in relative allocation within flowers was not independent of seed tield components:; different combinations of the size and number of floral characters were correlated with different seed yield components, for example, either seed size or number per fruit, during a season. in particular, allocations to attractive and male structures were highly correlated with mean seed weight only earlier in the season. These result provide some evidence that flowering phenolgy is an important comportant to be considered in the study of sexual allocation.