Floral reproductive traits of Helicodiceros
muscivorus are presented Table 3.
In summary, the single appendix represented
52% of the spadix total length, the
two fertile zones represented 13% (6% for
the male zone and 7% for the female
zone), and the rest (about 35%) represented
the sterile parts (appendix stipe,
sterile zones above and below the stamens;
Fig. 1). In terms of number of
flowers, male flowers were on average 1.7 times more numerous than female
flowers, leading to maleness of the floral
sex ratio of the inflorescence of 62%
(Table 3). The number of ovules per ovary
was on average equal to 4.5 (Table 3). The
fact that the fertile (male and female) zones
(Fig. 4) as well as the number of male and
female flowers (Fig. 5) increased at the
same rate (same slopes) with an increase
of the spadix size indicated that there was
no bias in terms of resource allocation to the
male or female function in relation to an
increase of the vigor. This result was also
confirmed by the absence of correlation
between the spadix size and the floral sex
ratio (R2 5 531024; F1,45 5 .022; p 5 .88).