TITLE:
Reproductive Biology of Ficus beipeiensis
AUTHORS:
Hongping Deng, Yunting Li, Long Chen, Shaohu Tang
KEYWORDS:
F. beipeiensis, Morphological Structure, Reproductive, Wild Individual Were Rare
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.6 No.18,
November
24,
2015
ABSTRACT: This paper uses morphological, anatomical and ecological methods to study the morphological
characteristics and propagation mechanism of Ficus beipeiensis S.S Chang which is endemic to
China, providing a scientific basis for the rare population of wild plants and repopulation. The following
results were obtained. First, F. beipeiensis with pollinating fig wasps was highly adapted in
morphological structure and behavior. Second, a monoclinous flower period existed during the
developmental phase of male flowers. F. beipeiensis had one to four stamens and one pistil. The
pistil in the stigma of syconium flowers was similar to that of gall flowers, but no pollinating fig
wasps that laid eggs in the ovary were found. Third, wild individual specimens were found to be
rare. The investigation found only one male and four female individuals among them. However,
only two female plants can bear fruits. The remaining 9 female plants were cultivated, among
which only four grew syconia. No fruit, seed germination, and seeding were found under natural
conditions. Several possible reasons for the growth of rare wild plants can be found as following: 1)
An imbalance between male and female plants reduces breeding efficiency; 2) Ceratosolen sp. is a
species-specific pollinator of F. beipeiensis, so the gall rate is lower; 3) The high mortality of Ceratosolen
sp. results in low pollination rate; 4) The seed rate [25.64% ± 54.13% (N = 50)] is lower,
ranging from 2% to 70%; 5) Seed germination is difficult under natural conditions.