Lopresti, Laura C., Lach, Lori, Sosenski, Paula, Parra-Tabla, Victor, and Montesinos, Daniel (2026) An invasive plant may overcome pollination specialisation with a versatile breeding system. Biological Invasions, 28. 125.

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Abstract

Plants with specialised pollination syndromes are less likely to become invasive compared to those with generalist syndromes, yet some highly invasive species have specialised syndromes. Few empirical studies have investigated the reproductive biology of invasive plants with specialised pollination syndromes, preventing a deep understanding of this apparent contradiction. Senna species (Fabaceae) exhibit the specialised buzz-pollination syndrome, and several Senna species are invasive globally. We assessed whether Senna obtusifolia could reproduce uniparentally via autonomous selfing, vector-mediated selfing, or without pollen (apomixis). We assessed whether it was pollen limited in either the studied native (Mexico) or invaded (Australia) regions. We experimentally manipulated pollinator access and pollen deposition in both regions and found that up to 40% of flowers set fruit from self-pollination and up to 24% of flowers set fruit in the absence of pollen. We found no evidence that S. obtusifolia was pollen limited in either region, suggesting that it has attracted suitable pollinators in both studied regions. Our findings suggest that S. obtusifolia has a mixed breeding system, combining selfing, apomixis, and outcrossing. This versatile breeding system may be key to its invasiveness, enabling uniparental reproduction during the early stage of colonization, while maintaining genetic diversity through outcrossing.

Item ID:	92390
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1573-1464
Copyright Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Date Deposited:	22 Jun 2026 22:56
FoR Codes:	31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310302 Community ecology (excl. invasive species ecology) @ 30% 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3104 Evolutionary biology > 310405 Evolutionary ecology @ 30% 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310307 Population ecology @ 40%
SEO Codes:	18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1806 Terrestrial systems and management > 180602 Control of pests, diseases and exotic species in terrestrial environments @ 100%
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