Differentiation of reproductive traits between central and peripheral populations of Allium wallichii Kunth

The differentiation of reproductive characteristics not only exists between different populations, but also may exist within populations. In this work, the differences between the central and peripheral populations were experimentally compared and analyzed in terms of biodiversity index, plant traits, anthesis, pollen germination, floral visitors, seed setting rate, and ploidy. The results showed that the diversity and richness of other plant species, in the central population were significantly lower than those in the peripheral population, but the plant density was much higher than in the peripheral population. The plant anatomical traits, anthesis, pollen germination, floral visitors, seed setting rate, and ploidy were significantly different between central population and peripheral populations. The term increasing rate (IR) is proposed as a means of comparing morphologies in different organs. IR differences in vegetative characteristics were more stable, while those in reproductive characteristics differed significantly. For the central population, the effect of the intraspecific reproductive competition and pollinator selection on plants may significant, and morphology was differentiated in terms of reproductive characteristics. Plants in the peripheral populations were visited by many more pollinators than in the central population, and all pollinators visited infrequently. The reproductive characteristics of plants in the peripheral populations may therefore only be weakly affected by pollinator selection. The reproductive characteristics of plants in the peripheral population may weakly affected by the selection of pollinators and the variation was small. In conclusion, morphological differentiation among the different populations was associated with differences in vegetative and reproductive characteristics.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author