Pollination efficiency and the pollen–ovule ratio

Abstract

Summary Pollination presents a risky journey for pollen grains. Pollen loss is sometimes thought to favour greater pollen investment to compensate for the inefficiency of transport. Sex allocation theory, to the contrary, has consistently concluded that postdispersal loss should have no selective effect on investment in either sex function. But the intuitively appealing compensation idea continues to be raised despite the lack of theoretical endorsement. We address the theoretical issue with a model that directly represents pollen loss (and ovule loss through floral demise or loss of receptivity) as rate‐dependent dynamical processes. These loss rates can be varied to examine the effect of pollination efficiency on optimal sex allocation. Pollen–ovule ratios follow from the sex allocation based on the resource costs of pollen and ovule production. This model confirms conventional findings that pollen loss should have essentially no effect on sexual resource allocation in large, panmictic populations. Pollen limitation of seed set does not alter this conclusion. These results force us to rethink the empirical association of pollination efficiency with low pollen–ovule ratios. This pattern could arise if efficient pollen transport commonly results in stigmatic deposition of cohorts of related pollen. Empirical evidence of correlated paternity supports this explanation.