The family Carlemanniaceae in East Asia and tropical Asia, comprising two genera,
Carlemannia and
Silvianthus, are mainly distributed along the southern foot of the Himalaya Mountains and the western and southern interface of the Yunnan
Plateau. The main reproductive process for
Carlemannia tetragona was verified as self-pollination by the pollination experiments in this work. Germination rates for seeds of both
C. tetragona and
Silvianthus bracteatus could reach 100% when the seeds were collected after two months, while the rates decreased to 25% when collection took place
in the previous year. It was found that the seed had no dormancy stages, and their seed banks were of the Transient Soil type.
In field observations, the dehiscence status for fruits showed that their seeds could not be ejected effectively by capsules
for dispersal. After analyzing the temperature and rainfall data from the years 1971 to 2000, it was shown that annual rainfall,
the lowest mean monthly temperature in a year, and the extreme lowest temperature in a month had a great effect on the distribution
range of Carlemanniaceae, while the mean annual temperature had a lesser effect. The narrow distribution range of Carlemanniaceae
was affected by multiple factors, such as the short pollen dispersal distance and the Transient Soil Seed Bank. The population
sizes of Carlemanniaceae were also easily affected by the level of rainfall, not by any single variable.
Keywords Carlemannia - Silvianthus - distribution region - seed dispersal - rainfall - temperature
Supported by the National Key Project for Basic Research on Ecosystem Changes in the Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region and Trans-boundary
Eco-security of Southwest China (2003CB415103)