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Posters
THE ROLE OF BIRDS AND MAMMALS IN CHAMAEROPS HUMILIS L.
(ARECACEAE) SEED DISPERSAL
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J.L. GARCIA-CASTANO, M. CUAFDRADO 2 , M.Á. ORTIZ 1 , F. BALAO 1 , R.
CASIMIRO-SORIGUER 1 & M. TALAVERA 1
1 Depto. de Biología Vegetal y Ecología (Universidad de Sevilla), Apdo. 1095, 41080, Sevilla, Spain
2 Zoobotánico de Jerez, Taxdirt s/n, E-11404, Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), Spain
Corresponding author: Juan Luis García-Castaño, jlgc@us.es
Chamaerops humilis L. (Arecaceae) fruits are rather atypical from both a botanical and an
ecological point of view. They are polycarpic, coming from 1–3(4)-carpelled flowers. Each
unit is an ellipsoid drupe with a smooth exocarp, a fleshy mesocarp and a poorly developed
endocarp; hereafter, each of these units will be called a fruit due to its ecological meaning
during consumption and dispersal by frugivores. These fruits are one-seeded, brown, not
visually conspicuous (only orange during a short period of time when ripening) but very
smelly when ripe, with a smell of old cheese or rotten butter. They are distributed in a,
frequently compact, infructescence and available for consumption from November to January
(February in dry years). The seed dispersal biology of this palm remains unknown in a wide
framework. Here we approach to it both in current conditions as well as reproducing potential
past situations. Samples from seeds dispersed naturally (mostly lagomorphs and carnivores)
were taken in different populations of SW Spain (Huelva, Seville and Cadiz). Seeds treated by
the digestive tract of potential dispersers (mostly birds and mammals) were also obtained by
fruit offering or baiting. Finally, germination tests and viability analyses using tetrazolium
chloride staining were used to evaluate the quality of different dispersers. Nowadays, the
distribution of C. humilis, one of the two native palms occurring in Europe and the only one in
western Europe, is confined to the western Mediterranean, both on the European and on the
African sides (including most of the western Mediterranean big islands) but was more widely
spread in the past, being, somehow, a living fossil whose phylogeography has been modelled
by more than 30 Ma of geological and climate changes. It is in this context where our result of
a non-specific mammal-dispersal syndrome is discussed.
Keywords: Chamaerops humilis L., frugivory, Quaternary, seed dispersal, Tertiary
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