IS RELATIVE POLLEN PRODUCTION OR REMOVAL A GOOD PREDICTOR OF RELATIVEMALE FITNESS - AN EXPERIMENTAL EXPLORATION WITH A WILD STRAWBERRY (FRAGARIA-VIRGINIANA, ROSACEAE)

Understanding plant reproduction requires knowledge of genetic contrib utions through pollen and seeds. Since direct genetic assessments of f itness through pollen are often intractable, reproductive ecologists u se components of male fitness such as pollen production and pollen rem oval as surrogates for paternity. However. we know little of the stren gth of the relationship between these components and actual paternity. Here, I report on a study undertaken to examine the relationship of p ollen production and removal with paternity in Fragaria virginiana, a wild strawberry. A morphological marker was used to track paternity in experimental arrays exposed to native pollinators. Relative pollen pr oduction proved to be a poor predictor of relative paternity in most a rrays, and over all arrays there was no significant correlation betwee n relative paternity and relative pollen production. In contrast, rela tive pollen removed correlated significantly and positively with propo rtion of seeds sired, suggesting that a plant's contribution to the po ol of removed pollen is a good predictor of its male reproductive succ ess. Deviations from expected paternity based on relative pollen remov al suggest a systematic overestimation of the airing success of plants with low pollen removal. And, in at least one specific cast, low poll en removal may be explained by delayed anther dehiscence, which could lower the effectiveness of the removed pollen.