Raw data for "Pollen dispensing schedules in buzz-pollinated plants: Experimental comparison of species with contrasting floral morphologies"

Abstract

Raw data for "Pollen dispensing schedules in buzz-pollinated plants: Experimental comparison of species with contrasting floral morphologies" published in the American Journal of Botany (2021). The data set contains (A) the amount of pollen released per vibration, (B) the total amount of pollen in each flower, (C) anther lengths and breadths, and (D) anther pore areas. We conducted two pollen extraction experiments. In the first experiment, we subjected Solanum rostratum, S. fructu-tecto, S. grayi var. grandiflorum, S. grayi var. grayi, S. citrullifolium, and S. heterodoxum flowers to simulated vibrations. All vibration stimuli had a peak velocity of 80 mm/s. Each flower was subjected to 30 consecutive vibrations. Pollen was collected in separate vials for vibrations 1—10, 15, 20, 25, and 30. The remaining pollen in the flower was also extracted (see Kemp & Vallejo-Marin 2021 for details). In the second experiment, we repeated the methods in experiment 1, but we applied three different vibration velocity treatments (80, 40, and 20 mm/s). For this we used S. citrullifolium, and S. heterodoxum flowers. We estimated the number of pollen grains in each sample using a particle counter. Each pollen sample was added to 20 mL 0.9% NaCl solution during analysis (see Kemp & Vallejo-Marin 2021 for details). For each sample, the amount of pollen was counted in two 1 mL subsamples. The pollen counts for these subsamples were averaged and multiplied by 20 to obtain the total pollen count. For samples with higher pollen concentrations, we added the pollen samples to 100 or 200 mL NaCl solution and multiplied the averaged pollen count by 100 or 200 respectively to obtain the total pollen count. We measured three traits for the pollinating and feeding anthers separately for each flower used in our trials: (1) the anther length, (2) the anther breadth at base of the anther, and (3) the area of the pores. To measure the anther pore area, we took SEM photographs of one feeding and one pollinating anther per flower, and we measured the area of the pores from photographs (see Kemp & Vallejo-Marin 2021 for details).