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Scientia Silvae Sinicae ›› 2015, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (5): 28-36.doi: 10.11707/j.1001-7488.20150504

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Pollination Biology of Ficus superba var. japonica in Fuzhou

Zheng Cuifang, Chen Xiaoqian, Chen Youling, Wang Aifang, Wang Zhao, Wu Wenshan   

  1. Provincial Key Laboratory for Developmental Biology and Neurosciences College of Life Science, Fujian Normal University Fuzhou 350117
  • Received:2014-04-18 Revised:2015-03-25 Online:2015-05-25 Published:2015-06-11

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Abstract:

Ficus superba var. japonica is one type of deciduous and monoecious trees, however its reproductive behavior is very little known. In this study, we investigated the reproductive biology of F. superba var. japonica in Fuzhou and the results are shown in the following. (1) F. superba var. japonica plants bear multiple batches of fruits (0-5 crops) annually, among which the 1 or 2 batches per year is the most case. The fig developmental patterns exhibited synchronous intra-tree, asynchronous or synchronous inter-tree. There was no overlap of different developmental stages in trees. The fig developmental period was obviously affected by seasons. In the autumn and winter (from November to the next February) when the sunshine period is short and the temperature is lower related to the rest of year, the fig developmental cycle usually lasted for 2 to 5 months; while in the spring and summer (from March to October), the plant grows faster, and the fig developmental cycle was completed in only 1 to 2 months. 2) F. superba var. japonica plants renewed their leaves 1 to 2 times each year. Both defoliation and leaf-renewing peaked in early spring and late summer. The new leaves always started to emerge within 1 or 2 weeks after defoliation. It seems that the fig development and the growth of new leaves would be associated with defoliation of old leaves. The carbohydrates for fig production are provided by leaves through the process of photosynthesis. 3) The foundress of F. superba var. japonica during the female flowering phase was usually occupied by only 1-3 wasps. Therefore, the large quantity of small-sized figs had chances to host sufficient pollinating wasps to ensure their development. This circumstance can also avoid the adverse consequences such as the wasp death and the low spawning efficiency caused by too many pollinators in the limited fig space. It was found that the pollinators that enter syconia all had to some degrees disability. 4) In the female phase, the flower stalk (including gynophore) was shorter while its style (including stigma) was longer, and vice versa. Therefore, the female flowers' stigma stayed in the same plane which conduced to fig wasps' pollination and spawning. The ovaries of female flowers were dispersedly distributed, forming two layers to maximally took the limited space of figs. The mean length of the pollinators' ovipositors was significantly longer than that of the style of female flowers (P< 0.001), indicating that the pollinators' ovipositors could reach almost all of the ovaries. In summary, our data provide the basic and useful information regarding the pollination biology of F. superba.var. japonica and for supporting city afforestation and conservation in tropical rain forests.

Key words: fig, fig wasp, galls, development

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