KOPTUR, SUZANNE* AND JOHN HENRY GEIGER. Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199. - Pollination of Byrsonima lucida (Malpighiaceae) in southern Florida.
Byrsonima lucida is the only member of the Malpighiaceae native
to subtropical Florida, and occurs in pine rockland habitat on the
Miami Rock Ridge and in the Lower Keys. Its flowers have oil glands
that produce rewards for specialized pollinators, bees in the genus
Centris (Anthophoridae). Centris errans is endemic to
southern Florida (Dade and Monroe Counties), while C. lanosa
has a wider distribution throughout Florida and the Caribbean. The
plants flower from February - April, usually preceding the appearance
of the bees (often a month later). Early flowers do not produce
fruit, and bagging experiments have shown that pollination is
necessary for fruit set. We predicted that B. lucida would be
likely to show negative effects of the extensive habitat destruction
and fragmentation that pine rocklands have undergone; its specialized
pollinators might disappear from the small, isolated patches of intact
habitat left after development. Surprisingly, the bees are present in
most of the fragments studied, and the plants fruit at these sites
(though somewhat less successfully than those in pristine Everglades
sites). It appears that home landscape plantings that include several
ornamental Malpighiaceae, as well as native plants, may have helped
to support the specialized pollinators in the matrix between natural
habitat fragments.
Key words: Centris bees, fruit set, habitat fragmentation, reproductive success, specialized syndrome