Roscoea schneideriana is a small perennial Himalayan ginger typically found in habitats at around 3000 m a.s.l., with flowers purple or white. XTBG Ph.D candidate Zhang Zhiqiang and his supervisor Prof.Li Qingjun recently found that insect-pollinators or mates are scarce for this flowering plant, but its ability to produce seeds is still at a high rate. Through studies during the flowering seasons of 2005-2007, it is found that autonomous selfing in R. schneideriana is achieved by stigmas curling towards the anthers early in flowering. It is suggested that under the poor pollination conditions, autonomous selfing has been selected for in this alpine ginger because it provides substantial reproductive assurance with very low costs. The research observation entitled “Autonomous selfing provides reproductive assurance in an alpine ginger Roscoea schneideriana (Zingiberaceae)” has been published in Annals of Botany (doi:10.1093/aob/mcn136). |