Male Pollination Success and Female Pollination Success Are Mediated by Opposing Processes in a Coflowering Community

Premise of research. Hermaphroditic flowering plants achieve reproductive success via both seed siring (male function) and seed production (female function). In pollinator-dependent plants, both gender functions depend on successful pollination, in which pollen is transferred from anthers to stigmas, resulting in seed production. However, it is still unclear how male (pollen removal) and female (pollen receipt and pollen tubes) components of pollination success are associated with each other and which community-level processes drive each function in coflowering communities.Methodology. In a pollen-limited environment with low pollinator visitation rates and most ovules left unfertilized, we measured pollen removal, pollen receipt, and pollen tubes across 41 species and tested their correlation and how floral density and reproductive traits predict each component.Pivotal results. One-quarter of the pollen remained on flowers on average, while disproportionate increases in pollen removal were often associated with small increases in pollen receipt and pollen tubes. Abundant plants suffered intraspecific competition, while interspecific individuals engaged in facilitative interactions via all components (pollen removal, pollen receipt, and pollen tubes) but in varying strengths. Plants with small display size and flowering synchronously with the plant community were at a disadvantage in terms of pollen removal but at an advantage in terms of pollen receipt and pollen tubes.Conclusions. The natural low pollinator availability may limit both gender functions, leading to the correlation between pollination success components. Nevertheless, opposing community-level processes drive each pollination success component in plants with small display size. Our results suggest that coflowering context is important to understand potential synergies and conflicts between gender functions at the pollinator attraction stage, which are common evolutionary consequences of bisexuality.