The floral biology and pollination process of Glechoma longituba (Nakai) Kuprian, a clonal gynodioecious, perennial herb that is widely distributed in China was investigated in natural populations. During visits to the flowers of G. longituba, the carpenter bee-Xylocopa sinensis mainly displayed nectar-robbing behavior with minimal pollination. Nectar robbing behavior began at the onset of flowering and continued for about 3 weeks ending at about the middle of the flowering period. A total of 18.6% floral visits in this period were by nectar robbers, with about 90% of the flowers in the study populations being subjected to two or two nectar-robbing episodes. During controlled experiments, lower pollination efficiency was recorded for X. sinensis compared to legitimate pollinators. Pollination by the robber-like pollinator X. sinensis during the early-mid phase of the flowering season yielded seeds of 16.16%. Although nectar robbing by the carpenter bee seemed to have a slight enhancing effect on seed set in G. longituba, this effect was effectively masked by the more pronounced detrimental effect of nectar robbing. Experiments indicated that nectar robbing by the carpenter bee reduced seed production by more than 26%, largely owing to the consequent shortening of the life span of robbed flowers. Furthermore, 10.43% of the ovules and 13.04% of the nectaries in the robbed flowers were damaged, thus causing a decrease or entire loss of reproductive opportunity in the robbed flowers. In addition, a higher number of pollen grains remained on the androecia of robbed flowers indicating that nectar robbing may have a lowering effect on male fitness in G. longituba.

The molecular phylogeny of Alismatidae based on analysis of chloroplast rbcL gene sequence data serves as a framework within which to evaluate the evolutionary advancement of aquatic life-forms in this group. Forty-five genera representing all currently recognized families in the subclass are included in our study. The present analysis indicates that the submersed, floating-leaved, and free-floating life-forms are all polyphyletic within the subclass Alismatidae. Three independent origins of the submersed life-form in Alismatidae with one reversal to emergent life-form are explored in this study. Two separate origins of the free-floating life-form and three separate origins of the floating-leaved life-form in the subclass are also suggested. It is possible for the free-floating life-form to have been derived directly from the submersed life-form and it could also be that the free-floating life-form has been derived from the emergent one. The emergent life-form is considered as progenitorial in the Alismatidae, giving rise to submersed, floating-leaved, and freefloating forms by adaptive radiation.

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Chimonanthus praecox (wintersweet) is endemic to China. It has been cultivated there for more than 1000 years as a garden, potted, and cut-flower plant. Many cultivars have been developed during its long history of cultivation, and recently many germplasms were collected in Wuhan and Nanjing, China. The identification and genetic relationship of these resources were studied based mainly on morphological traits. In the current study, intersimple sequence repeat markers (ISSR) and random amplified polymorphic DNA markers (RAPD) were used for the first time to investigate 72 wintersweet clones from the two regions. Eleven ISSR primers amplified 115 bands, 90 (78.26%) of which were polymorphic. Nineteen RAPD primers amplified 165 bands, 105 (63.63%) of which were polymorphic. Either ISSR or RAPD markers were sufficient to distinguish all the clones surveyed. A Dendrogram based on Jaccard's similarity coefficients indicated that the distribution pattern of the 72 clones was coherent with their geographical origins. Most of the genetic variation (85.68% with ISSR data; 86.75% with RAPD data) occurred among clones within each region. However, the difference between Wuhan and Nanjing groups is statistically significant (ΦST = 0.143, P < 0.001, with ISSR data; ΦST = 0.132, P < 0.001, with RAPD data). Morphological variation and classification of wintersweet cultivars were also discussed compared with the genetic relationship based on ISSR and RAPD markers. This is the first report of the partitioning of genetic variability within and between different cultivated wintersweet regions, and it provides useful baseline data for optimizing sampling strategies in breeding. These results are important for future genetic improvement, identification, and conservation of Chimonanthus praecox germplasm.