Paternity analysis in Ophiopogon xylorrhizus Wang et Tai (Liliaceae s.l.):: selfing assures reproductive success

We assessed the utility of codominant allozyme markers for paternity analysis in natural populations of Ophiopogon xylorrhizus (Liliaceae s. l.) by means of likelihood-based approach. In the three independent natural stands of 46 individual plants with 354 seeds of O. xylorrhizus (Liliaceae s. l), we assigned 319 seeds to a single individual with the highest LOD score. Among these, 179 seeds had a significant D-value. An individual (acting either as female or male) mateds with an average of one other individual on average to reproduce, except when it self-pollinated. If an individual that neither donated pollen to other individuals nor selfed, being strictly a pollen acceptor, the number of offspring produced was half that produced by as many offspring as individuals which both provided and accepted pollen (4.1 vs. 9.5). Significant positive relationships were found in all the three stands between the number of self-pollen an individual produced and the number of seeds that individual set. Male outcrossing reproductive success was unevenly varied, both in amount and spatial location. The individuals located in the centre of the stand and the individuals closest to each other had higher male outcrossing reproductive success than those at the edge of the stand. Male selfing reproductive success showed a similar pattern, with an even distribution of female reproductive output. Most mating events were took place within 20 m. The distance between mates mirrored the active ranges of pollinators, and shaped the fine-scale population spatial genetic spatial structure. The results indicate that selfing assures reproductive success in O. xylorrhizus .