Search results for "Elaiosome"
showing 2 items of 2 documents
Conservation aspects for chasmophytic species: Phenological behavior and seed strategies of the Central Apennine threatened endemismMoehringia papulo…
2012
Abstract Chasmophytic vegetation growing on the cracks of cliffs in the Mediterranean and in the Euro-Siberian phytogeographic regions shows a great regional diversity, with a large number of endemic plant species, many of them endangered and at risk of extinction. Moehringia papulosa is an example of a threatened plant living in this kind of habitat. It is an endemism of the Marche region in central Italy, whose natural populations are considered as critically endangered (CR) under the IUCN criteria and the habitat is protected by the E.U. (Directive 92/43/EEC) with the habitat 8210 “calcareous rocky slopes with chasmophytic vegetation”. The phenology of natural populations was analyzed, s…
Seed dispersal by ants: are seed preferences influenced by foraging strategies or historical constraints?
2003
Summary The objective of this study was to quantify preferences of ants for seeds of different plant species and to test if these preferences were caused by foraging strategies or by historical constraints. We compared seed removal rates of ten different ant-dispersed plant species found in temperate forests, along forest edges and in grassland. We found significant differences in seed removal rates among the ten species. To test if these differences were caused by foraging strategies we examined the relationship between seed and elaiosome size and seed removal rate. We found that seeds with larger elaiosomes had significantly higher removal rates. To test the historical constraint hypothes…