Pollination biology of (L.) Benth. (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae) with reference to insect floral visitors.

Abstract

Indian siris, (L.) Benth. (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae) has significant importance to human beings for its multipurpose use. Insects play a crucial role in the pollination biology of flowering plants. In the current study, we studied the pollination biology of with special reference to insect floral visitors. The effectiveness of floral visitors was investigated in term of visitation frequency, visitation rate and pollen load during 2012 and 2013. In the second experiment, effect of pollinators on yield of was studied in open and cage pollination experiments. Floral visitor fauna of included eight-bees, two wasps, two flies, and two butterflies species. Among them, , , and had maximum abundance ranging from 349-492, 339-428, 291-342 and 235-255 numbers of individuals, respectively during two flowering seasons. had the highest visitation frequency (6.44 ± 0.49-8.78 ± 0.48 visits/flower/5min) followed by (6.03 ± 0.43-7.99 ± 0.33 visits/flower/5min) and (3.61 ± 0.31-4.44 ± 0.18 visits/flower/5min). , and had the highest visitation rates (18.904 ± 1.53-11.43 ± 1.17 flower visited/min) and pollen load (15333 ± 336.22-19243 ± 648.45 pollen grains). The open pollinated flowers had significantly higher capsule weight (4.97 ± 0.21 g), seed weight (1.04 ± 0.05 g), seed numbers per pod (9.80 ± 0.34) and seed germination percentage (84.0 ± 1.78%) as compared to caged flowers. The results suggested bees especially , and could be effective pollinators of .