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Annals of Botany 89: 145-156, 2002
© 2002 Annals of Botany Company

Barriers to Sexual Reproduction in Polygonum viviparum: A Comparative Developmental Analysis of P. viviparum and P. bistortoides

PAMELA K. DIGGLE*,1, MARGARET A. MEIXNER{dagger},1, AMY B. CARROLL{ddagger},1 and CHRISTIE F. ASCHWANDEN§,1

1Department of Environmental, Population and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder,CO 80309-0334, USA

* For correspondence. Fax 001 303 492 8699, e-mail Pamela.Diggle{at}colorado.edu
{dagger} Present address: 22 Forest Road, Delmar, NY 12054-3039, USA
{ddagger} Present address: Boreal Ecology Cooperative Research Unit, University of Alaska, PO Box 756780, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6780, USA
§ Present address: 111 Bonanza Drive, Nederland, CO 80466, USA

Received: 18 July 2001; Returned for revision: 12 September 2001; Accepted: 11 October 2001.

Polygonum viviparum is widely distributed in arctic and alpine regions of the northern hemisphere. Fruit set has never been observed in North American populations and has been reported only very rarely in Europe. Although this species is extremely well studied, the impediments to successful fruit production are unknown. We investigated the sexual reproductive process in P. viviparum growing in the southern Colorado Rocky Mountains. For comparison, we also examined this process in the sympatric congener P. bistortoides, in which reproduction is exclusively sexual. Lack of viable fruit production in P. viviparum has no single developmental explanation; defects occur in each of the processes and structures associated with sexual reproduction studied, yet, these processes and structures also appear to function normally in at least some flowers or individuals. Development is abnormal in many ovules of P. viviparum, however, comparison with P. bistortoides shows that these abnormalities do not contribute to differences in seed production between the two species. The virtual absence of sexual reproduction in P. viviparum appears to be due largely to a low rate of fertilization and to embryo/fruit abortion.

Key words: Asexual reproduction, embryo abortion, development, fruit abortion, pollen viability, Polygonaceae, Polygonum viviparum, Polygonum bistortoides, polyploidy, seed abortion, sexual reproduction.


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