The Consequences of Pollination Biology for Selection of Mass or Extended Blooming

Abstract

A model is developed to explore conditions that favour mass blooming vs extended blooming. It is assumed that the pollinators arriving at a plant visit all flowers on that plant, that pollen uptake and deposition are constant fractions of amounts on the flower and pollinator, respectively, that seed set is limited by resources, and that there are no seasonal restrictions on flowering. If the number of pollinator visits is independent of the flowering strategy, then it is quite immaterial how many flowers are presented at the same time in a self-compatible species, whereas presenting flowers one at a time is optimal in a self-incompatible species (...)