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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Adrian Richards
This is the final published version of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2016.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Investigations on plant mating systems in a changing world become crucial. There are two main methods to study the rate of outcrossing (matings between unrelated genets) versus selfing (mating among close relatives) in plants. The direct method involves pollinator excluding experiments. The indirect method measures the rate of pollen-ovule ratios (P/O ratio). The aim of this study is to test the breeding systems of some rare and endemic legumes from mountain areas of the Balkans, SE Europe using both direct and indirect methods and comparatively to analyse the results. According to the results from the field experiments with flowers excluded form pollinators all studied species except Oxytropis urumovii are not capable of spontaneous self-pollination. Breeding systems data obtained by both methods are pretty well in agreement for Astragalus dasyanthus and Onobrychis pindicola. The P/O ratio data do not fit very well with pollinator excluding data for the Oxytropis species. Although P/O ratio method is crucial in all cases when field experiments are not possible, e.g. objects with small and vulnerable populations that are hard to reach such as O. kozuharovii, the results should be interpreted with caution.
Author(s): Kozurahova E, Richards AJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Comptes Rendus de l'Academie Bulgare des Sciences
Year: 2016
Volume: 69
Issue: 12
Pages: 1571-1580
Online publication date: 19/12/2016
Acceptance date: 02/04/2016
Date deposited: 24/03/2017
ISSN (print): 1310-1331
ISSN (electronic): 2367-5535
Publisher: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
URL: http://www.proceedings.bas.bg/
