REPRODUCTIVE-BIOLOGY OF COREMA-ALBUM (L.) DON,D. (EMPETRACEAE) IN THENORTHWEST IBERIAN PENINSULA

We report a study of the reproductive biology of the dioecious shrub C orema album in Galicia (N-W Spain). Male flowers were larger and heavi er than female flowers, though the overall investment in sexual reprod uction by females was higher. Population pollen-to-ovule ratio was ver y high (about 173 000:1). Flowering phenology was synchronous between males and females. The relative spatial distribution of the sexes appe ars to be random. Fruit set was not significantly dependent on either distance to the nearest male or sum of distances to the nearest five m ales. However, our results suggest that fruit set is higher in populat ion nuclei with high population densities. Furthermore, mean single-fr uit weight was higher in the population nucleus with highest fruit set than in the other nuclei studied.