Re: NZ flora:Fuchsia excortica
Loren Russell wrote:
>
> Tony: ...bird pollinated: what birds? what kind of "advertising? It's
> clearly very different in floral structure from the SA fuchsias, which are
> classic hummingbird flowers, from the lowland tropics to the high
> mountains..
>
> Do you know anything about pollination biology of F. prorepens, as well?
>
Hi loren
I (Moira) am the botanist, Tony is the computer whiz!
To be perfictly honest, though I have often seen F excortica growing in
the bush, I am not at all familiar with the flowers, which are really
not very noticeable and by no stretch could be described as showy, which
does seem surprising for a species depending on bird pollination. To
give you an idea of size, the sepals on a typical flower measure 8-14mm
and the petals around 2.5 mm. The flora also mentions the hypanthium
(which I presume is the long tubular part) which is up to 15mm in
length.
My Eagle's Trees and Shrubs of NZ says the flowers are in two forms born
on separate plants, one is perfect and the other female only. In the
perfect flowers the pollen is blue. The petals are dark purple when the
flowers open and the sepals green. Later the calyx turns red.
It specifically states that the Tui (Prosthemadera novaseelandia) and
bellbird (Anthornis melanura) are the pollinators. The Tui is a large
heavy bird and the bellbird though smaller still at least sparrow sized
and both unlike hummingbirds both would perch to feed.
I have no information about pollination in F procumbens, but as I get
berries in my garden which is frequented by both these bird species, I
expect it is similar to excortica. You are possibly familiar with this
species in cultivation. It does have peculiar flowers -upward facing and
without petals. They are very polymorphic, being either male female or
perfect and differing considerably in the length of the style and
stamens. The tube is yellow and the stamens mainly purple with a green
base. The pollen is again blue.
As this is a low-growing species I wonder if the upward-facing flowers
are a convenience for the birds which feed on them.
Moira
-
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata,
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
