Pollen limitation in the endangered Chinese endemic species Sinocalycanthus chinensis

Pollen limitation negatively impacts endangered and endemic plants with small fragmented populations, such as Sinocalycanthus chinensis, an endangered plant endemic to China. In this study, we analyzed the pollen limitation of the S. chinensis Damingshan (DMS) population in 2006, 2009, and 2010, and crossed plants with mates separated by different distances, both within and between populations. The DMS population exhibited strong pollen limitation in fruit set, seed set, and seeds per fruit in 2006, 2009, and 2010. The average accumulated pollen limitation (for fruit set times seeds per fruit) was 0.510 ± 0.180. Progeny crossed with pollen from intermediate neighboring plants within the same population (separated by 30 – 50 m from pollen recipients) had the lowest fitness. No optimal outcrossing distance was found within the DMS population. Progeny from crosses with the SXW and DLS populations performed relatively better, while those from crosses with QLF and LXS populations performed w..., Study site
This study was conducted at Damingshan Mountain (DMS, 30º02′N, 118º59′E), Linan City, Zhejiang Province, China (Table 1), the location of the largest known extant population (Liu, Zhou, Huang, Bao & Zhao, 2016). The pollen donor plants were located in the main DMS population and the other five populations were located at Tashajiang Village (TSJ), Shunxiwu Village (SXW), and Qingliangfeng Mountain (QLF) in Linan City, Zhejiang Province, Daleishan Mountain (DLS) in Tiantai County, Zhejiang Province, and Longxushan Mountain (LXS) in Jixi County, Anhui Province (Table 1). Among these populations, the population size of SXW and QLF were relatively large (Table 1).
Experimental design
Pollen limitation
As a woody shrub, the age class of S. chinensis can be estimated from the volume calculated as d from the formula d=a×b×c, where a is the height of the tallest stem, b is the crown width along the longitudinal axis, and c is the width along the perpendicular axis (Yang et al., 20..., , # Data from: Pollen limitation in the endangered Chinese endemic species Sinocalycanthus chinensis

## Description of the data and file structure

Table 1 Fruit set, seed set, and seeds per fruit produced by naturally open-pollinated flowers (control), under xenogamous pollen supplementation treatments in Sinocalycanthus chinensis.

Table 2 Fruit set, seed set, and seeds per fruit under the nine pollen supplementation treatments in Sinocalycanthus chinensis.