TY - JOUR
T1 - Plant reproductive phenology over four years including an episode of general flowering in a lowland dipterocarp forest, Sarawak, Malaysia
AU - Sakai, Shoko
AU - Momose, Kuniyasu
AU - Yumoto, Takakazu
AU - Nagamitsu, Teruyoshi
AU - Nagamasu, Hidetoshi
AU - Hamid, Abang A.
AU - Nakashizuka, Tohru
N1 - Funding information:
The authors thank Dr. H. S. Lee, Forest Department Sarawak, and Prof. K. Ogino, The University of Shiga Prefecture, for their support and organization of our study; Prof. T. Itino, Kagawa University, Prof. T. Kohyama, Hokkaido University, Dr. R. Terauchi, Iwate Biotechnology Research Center, and Mr. R. D. Harrison and members of the Canopy Biology Program in Sarawak for their help in establishment of observation methods and data collections; Dr. M. Kato, Kyoto University, and Dr. Itioka, Nagoya University, for advice on data analyses; R. Rapi, R. Johan, and B. Nyambong for their help for field observation; and Prof. P. S. Ashton, Harvard University, Dr. I. M. Turner, Singapore Botanic Gardens, Dr. D. W. Roubik and Dr. S. J. Wright, Smithsonian Institution for helpful comments on the manuscript. This study was partly supported by Grants-in-Aid of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (numbers 04041067, 06041013, 09NP1501, and 10041169) and by JSPS Research Fellowships for Young Scientists for S. Sakai.
Publisher copyright:
© 1999 Botanical Society of America
PY - 1999/10
Y1 - 1999/10
N2 - The first systematic observation of a general flowering, a phenomenon unique to lowland mixed-dipterocarp forests in Southeast Asia, is presented. During general flowering, which occurs at irregular intervals of 3–10 yr, nearly all dipterocarp species together with species of other families come heavily into flower. We monitored reproductive phenology of 576 individual plants representing 305 species in 56 families in Sarawak, Malaysia. Observations continued for 53 mo from August 1992 and covered one episode of a general flowering cycle. Among 527 effective reproductive events during 43 mo, 57% were concentrated in the general flowering period (GFP) of 10 mo in 1996. We classified 257 species into flowering types based on timing and frequency of flowering. The most abundant type was “general flowering” (35%), which flowered only during GFP. The others were “supra-annual” (19%), “annual” (13%), and “sub-annual” (5%) types. General flowering type and temporal aggregation in reproductive events were commonly found among species in various categories of taxonomic groups, life forms, pollination systems, and fruit types. Possible causes for general flowering, such as promotion of pollination brought about by interspecific synchronization and paucity of climatic cues suitable for flowering trigger, are proposed, in addition to the predator satiation hypothesis of Janzen (1974).
AB - The first systematic observation of a general flowering, a phenomenon unique to lowland mixed-dipterocarp forests in Southeast Asia, is presented. During general flowering, which occurs at irregular intervals of 3–10 yr, nearly all dipterocarp species together with species of other families come heavily into flower. We monitored reproductive phenology of 576 individual plants representing 305 species in 56 families in Sarawak, Malaysia. Observations continued for 53 mo from August 1992 and covered one episode of a general flowering cycle. Among 527 effective reproductive events during 43 mo, 57% were concentrated in the general flowering period (GFP) of 10 mo in 1996. We classified 257 species into flowering types based on timing and frequency of flowering. The most abundant type was “general flowering” (35%), which flowered only during GFP. The others were “supra-annual” (19%), “annual” (13%), and “sub-annual” (5%) types. General flowering type and temporal aggregation in reproductive events were commonly found among species in various categories of taxonomic groups, life forms, pollination systems, and fruit types. Possible causes for general flowering, such as promotion of pollination brought about by interspecific synchronization and paucity of climatic cues suitable for flowering trigger, are proposed, in addition to the predator satiation hypothesis of Janzen (1974).
KW - Borneo
KW - dipterocarp forest
KW - flowering trigger
KW - general flowering
KW - Malaysia
KW - predator satiation
KW - promotion of pollination
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-0033300949&partnerID=MN8TOARS
U2 - 10.2307/2656924
DO - 10.2307/2656924
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0002-9122
VL - 86
SP - 1414
EP - 1436
JO - American Journal of Botany
JF - American Journal of Botany
IS - 10
ER -