Aspects of the reproductive biology of stenanona flagelliflora (Annonaceae)

Stenanona flagelliflora was described in 2004. there are no studies on its biology. the goal of this study was to document some aspects of its reproductive biology. the particular objectives were to: i) describe the variation on vegetative and floral traits; ii) establish the composition of the community of floral visitors; iii) estimate the mating system and reproductive success; and,iv) establish the relationship between vegetative traits and reproductive success. the study was conducted within the los tuxtlas biosphere reserve,veracruz,mexico. we quantified several vegetative and floral traits; conducted observations and collected floral visitors; and determined the mating system and reproductive success. stenanona flagelliflora has relatively few stamens and carpels,but a relatively high viability of pollen grains. the most abundant floral visitors were dipterans from the phoridae family. mating system is between xenogamous and facultative xenogamous; thus,pollination depends upon pollen vectors. fruit-set was relatively high; but seed-set was very low,because most monocarps did not contain seeds. our results suggest that reproduction of s. flagelliflora is not limited by resource availability,but by pollinator frequency and effectiveness. to our knowledge,this is the first study on the reproductive biology of a species within the stenanona genus. © 2016,pakistan botanical society. all rights reserved.