Influences of animal pollination and seed dispersal on winter flowering in a temperate mistletoe

The evolution of flowering time can be influenced directly by pollinators and indirectly by seed dispersers. In temperate latitudes, interactions with climate, especially temperature, may affect both plants and their animal mutualists. Winter-flowering plants allow assessment of biotic influences on the evolution of flowering time because temperature is unlikely to select directly for this uncommon reproductive behavior. In northwestern Patagonia, the hemiparasitic mistletoe Tristerix corymbosus flowers from early fall, through the cool winter, to late spring. This species is pollinated by the hummingbird Sephanoides galeritus, and its seeds are dispersed by the marsupial Dromiciops australis. In two populations during two years, I analyzed seasonal variation in pollination, fruit production, and fruit removal. Hummingbird visitation was lowest in winter and late spring, and flowers opening during those periods showed reduced pollination and fruit set, partly due to pollinator limitation, compared to flowers that opened during fall or early spring. Fruits that ripened during summer (January-March) had a higher chance of being removed than fruits ripening during either spring or fall, due to their overlap with the period of maximum disperser activity. Timing of flower opening was strongly associated with fruit maturation time and with fruit removal rates. Thus, even though flowers that opened during winter exhibited only moderate fruit production, their fruits benefited from high fruit removal and seed dispersal in mid to late summer. These results suggest that the activity period of this plant's disperser, in combination with a lack of strong pollination constraints, probably governed the evolution of flowering phenology in this mistletoe. However, the proximate influence of temperature on flower and fruit development may prevent a fine-tuned match between flowering phenology and the period of maximum mutualist activity.