Search

Copyright of Journal of Henan Agricultural Sciences is the property of Editorial Board of Journal of Henan Agricultural Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Low temperature of alpine environment would limits the development of reproductive organs and pollination process, and thus flower structures that increase the temperatures within flowers and inflorescence will protect anthers and ovules from the low temperature and then increase the reproductive success. In this study, we investigated the flower and leaf temperature of 64 alpine plants with an infrared camera equipped with a macro-lens, and then calculated the flower temperature increment(FTI)by subtracting the leaf temperature from the temperature of the reproductive organs. Based on these data, we examined the effects of phylogeny, flowers size, symmetry and color on the FTI. Our result showed that the phylogenetic signal of FTI among different species was weak, indicating that FTI among different species might result from the various demands to temperature, independent of phylogenetic relationship. Furthermore, FTI increased with the increase of flower size, and FTI increased more quickly in zygomorphic flower than in actinomorphic flowers, but the effects of symmetry and color on the averaged FTI were minor across all species. Our results suggest that the differences in FTI are great among different species, but the contribution of FTI on plant reproductive success need to be clarified in future researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]