PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 16: Invasive Species.

Wednesday, August 6 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.

Pollinator visitation to the exotic japanese honeysuckle: Impacts on fruit set and vegetative growth.

Larson, Katherine ¹, ¹ University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR

ABSTRACT- The exotic Lonicera japonica requires pollen from another individual plant for successful fruit set, and thus within its invaded range in the southeastern US, it is completely dependent on native pollinators for seed production. I quantified much lower insect visitation rates to L. japonica than to other simultaneously flowering species, thus suggesting that fruit set in L. japonica was pollen limited. Experimental hand pollinations showed that fruit set could be increased from the natural control level of 17% to 78% when an abundance of pollen from another individual was applied to receptive stigmas. Japanese honeysuckle also reproduces vegetatively through horizontal shoots that root at the nodes. To determine if resources for fruit development were diverted to additional vegetative growth when pollination was low, I contrasted experimental plants getting supplemental pollination with plants having low levels of pollination. Allocation to vegetative growth was quantified in these two groups of plants. The potential impacts of pollination success on the rate of vegetative growth and invasiveness of L. japonica is discussed.

Key words: pollination, Lonicera japonica, invasive plant, fruit set