Climatic niche and flowering and fruiting phenology of an epiphytic plant

Abstract

Species have geographic distributions constrained by combinations of abiotic factors, biotic factors and dispersal-related factors. Abiotic requirements vary across the life stages for a species; for plant species, a particularly important life stage is when the plant flowers and develops seeds. A previous year-long experiment showed that ambient temperature of 5–35 °C, relative humidity of >50 % and ≤15 consecutive rainless days are crucial abiotic conditions for Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides L.). Here, we explore whether these optimal physiological intervals relate to the timing of the flowering and fruiting periods of Spanish moss across its range. As Spanish moss has a broad geographic range, we examined herbarium specimens to detect and characterize flowering/fruiting periods for the species across the Americas; we used high-temporal-resolution climatic data to assess the availability of optimal conditions for Spanish moss populations during each population's flowering period. We explored how long populations experience suboptimal conditions and found that most populations experience suboptimal conditions in at least one environmental dimension. Flowering and fruiting periods of Spanish moss populations are either being optimized for one or a few parameters or may be adjusted such that all parameters are suboptimal. Spanish moss populations appear to be constrained most closely by minimum temperature during this period.