Nursery pollinators, and the plants they use as hosts for offspring development, function as exemplary models of coevolutionary mutualism. The two pre-eminent examples--fig wasps and yucca moths--show little variation in the interaction: the primary pollinator is an obligate mutualist. By contrast, nursery pollination of certain Caryophyllaceae, including Silene spp., by two nocturnal moth gene...

Paclobutrazol (PBZ) is a retardant often used in potted ornamental plants to control their growth and compactness. The distribution in plant, substrate and leachate of PBZ applied to containerized oleander seedlings were studied after a single liquid drench application to the substrate surface (20 mg a.i. per plant) in a nursery dedicated to pot production in SE Spain. PBZ significantly reduced...

BACKGROUND Chemical control is the method most used for management of Diaphorina citri, the vector of the phloem-limited bacteria associated with citrus huanglongbing (HLB) disease. The objectives of this study were to determine the influence of soil-drench applications of neonicotinoids (thiamethoxam and imidacloprid) on the probing behaviour of D. citri on citrus nursery trees, using the elec...

Angular leaf spot (ALS), caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas fragariae, is one of the most damaging diseases in strawberry nursery production (17). The pathogen was first reported in Minnesota in 1962 and has since been found in several U.S. states as well as strawberry-growing regions in Europe, South America, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand (12,17). The disease affects the foliage, often a...

Plants involved in specialized pollinator interactions, such as nursery pollination, may experience trade-offs in their female fitness, as the larvae of their pollinators may also consume seeds produced by the flowers they pollinate. These interactions could potentially shift between mutualism and parasitism, depending on the presence and abundance of both the nursery pollinator and of other po...

With the nursery and garden center industry expanding, it is important to keep the consumer returning year after year for the newest, most exciting and most unusual species. Perennial nursery crops are one sector of the nursery market that has grown rapidly due to the addition of new species. Though orchids are not new to the horticultural trade, these fascinating plants have long been in the d...

Dioecy, a breeding system where individual plants are exclusively male or female, has evolved repeatedly. Extensive theory describes when dioecy should arise from hermaphroditism, frequently through gynodioecy, where females and hermaphrodites coexist, and when gynodioecy should be stable. Both pollinators and herbivores often prefer the pollen-bearing sex, with sex-specific fitness effects tha...