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Premise: Volatile emissions from flowers and fruits play a key role in signalling to animals responsible for pollination and seed dispersal. Here, we investigated the pollination biology and chemical ecology of reproduction in Apodolirion buchananii, an African amaryllid that flowers in a leafless state soon after grassland vegetation is burnt in the dry late‐winter season. Methods: Pollinators were identified through field collection and pollen loads were quantified. Floral traits including spectral reflectance and scent chemistry were documented. Bioassays using cup traps were used to test the function of floral volatiles. Fruiting biology was investigated using controlled hand‐pollination experiments and chemical analysis of fruit scent. Seed germination was scored in greenhouse trials. Seed dispersal was monitored using observations and camera trapping. Results: The sweetly scented white flowers of A. buchananii are pollen‐rewarding and pollinated mainly by a diverse assemblage of bees. Cup‐trap experiments demonstrated that pollinators are attracted to phenylacetaldehyde, the dominant volatile in the floral scent. Plants are shown to be self‐incompatible, and the fleshy fruits were found to emerge from the soil six months after pollination during the peak of the summer rains. Fruits emit a diverse blend of aliphatic and aromatic esters and contain large fleshy recalcitrant seeds which germinate within days of fruits splitting open. Seed dispersal by ants was recorded. Conclusions: This first account of the reproductive biology of a species in the genus Apodolirion highlights an outcrossing mating system involving bees attracted to color and scent as well as the unusual fruiting biology and ant‐mediated system of seed dispersal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeds of many Amaryllidaceae are unorthodox (recalcitrant) and toxic, and cannot survive ingestion, yet are packaged in brightly colored fruits suggestive of zoochory. Seed dispersal and germination of the understory amaryllid, Clivia miniata, were investigated in KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa. Motion‐activated cameras revealed that samango monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis labiatus) are the primary disperser of C. miniata seeds. They eat the mesocarp and, to a lesser extent, the exocarp, and spit the large (13 mm diameter) seeds whole and cleaned onto the forest floor. Most seeds were dispersed farther than 1 m from the parent. Experimental removal of the fruit pulp had a small positive effect on the rate of seed germination, but did not affect subsequent seedling growth rates. The main advantages of monkey dispersal of Clivia seeds appear to be short‐distance dispersal away from the dense foliage of clumped parent plants and occasional long‐distance dispersal through cheek‐pouching behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

* Premise of the study: Pollinator shifts have been implicated as a driver of divergence in angiosperms. We tested the hypothesis that there was a transition from bird- to butterfly pollination in the African genus Clivia (Amaryllidaceae) and investigated how floral traits may have been either modified or retained during this transition. * Methods: We identified pollinators using field observations, correlations between lepidopteran wing scales and pollen on stigmas, and single-visit and selective exclusion experiments. We also quantified floral rewards and advertising traits. * Key results: The upright trumpet-shaped flowers of C. miniata were found to be pollinated effectively by swallowtail butterflies during both nectar-feeding and brush visits. These butterflies transfer pollen on their wings, as evidenced by positive correlations between wing scales and pollen loads on stigmas. All other Clivia species have narrow pendulous flowers that are visited by sunbirds. Selective exclusion of birds and large butterflies from flowers of two Clivia species resulted in a significant decline in seed production. * Conclusions: From the distribution of pollination systems on available phylogenies, it is apparent that a shift took place from bird- to butterfly pollination in Clivia. This shift was accompanied by the evolution of trumpet-shaped flowers, smaller nectar volume, and emission of scent, while flower color and nectar chemistry do not appear to have been substantially modified. These results are consistent with the idea that pollinator shifts can explain major floral modifications during plant diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]