Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T16:20:37.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Characteristics of vertebrate-dispersed fruits in Hong Kong

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Richard T. Corlett
Richard T. Corlett
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Biodiversity, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Hong Kong has a native angiosperm flora of approximately 1800 species, of which 27% (482 spp.) bear fleshy, presumably vertebrate-dispersed fruits, including 76% of the 337 tree and shrub species and 70% of the 103 climber species. Morphological characteristics were determined for 255 species and nutritional characteristics of the fruit pulp for 153 species. Most fruit species were black (45.1%) or red (24.3%) and 85.9% had a mean diameter <13 mm. Nutritional characteristics varied widely between species with ranges and median values as follows: pulp percentage (range 10.0–99.2%, median 69.2%), water content of pulp (11.1–94.0%, 78%), lipid (0–84.0%, 2.0%), soluble carbohydrate (4–88%, 53%), nitrogen (0.2–3.4%, 0.86%), neutral detergent fibre (1–44%, 14.3%). Fruit development time (50–360 d, 156 d) showed a negative correlation with lipid content, but no significant correlation with fruit or seed size. Principal components analysis of fruit characteristics was dominated by a trend from single-seeded fruits with a thin, lipid-rich pulp layer to multiple-seeded fruits with much, watery, carbohydrate-rich pulp. Birddispersed species cover the full range of fruit characteristics except those too large to swallow and too hard to peck bits from. Mammals (bats, civets and/or macaques) are known or suspected to consume most of the fruits too large for birds as well as many bird fruits but none with high-lipid content. Summer fruits (May—September) were significantly larger and had significantly higher seed size and carbohydrate content than winter fruits (November-March). Winter fruits took more than twice as long to develop as summer fruits.

Keywords

birdsChinafrugivoryfruitHong Kongmammalsseed dispersal
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 12 , Issue 6 , November 1996 , pp. 819 - 833
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Allen, S. E. 1989. Chemical analysis of ecological materials (2nd edition). Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1993. Check list of Hong Kong plants. Agriculture and Fisheries Department, Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Ashworth, J. M., Corlett, R. T., Dudgeon, D., Melville, D. S. & Tang, W. S. M. 1993. Hong Kong flora and fauna: computing conservation. Worldwide Fund for Nature, Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Corlett, R. T. 1992a. Seed dispersal by birds in Hong Kong shrubland. Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society 19:129–130.Google Scholar
Corlett, R. T. 1992b. The naturalized flora of Hong Kong: a comparison with Singapore, Journal of Biogeography 19:421–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corlett, R. T. 1992c. The impact of cold and frost on the terrestrial vegetation of Hong Kong. Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society 19:133–135.Google Scholar
Corlett, R. T. 1993. Reproductive phenology of Hong Kong shrubland. Journal of Tropical Ecology 9:501–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Debussche, M., Cortez, J. & Rimbault, I. 1987. Variation in fleshy fruit composition in the Mediterranean region: the importance of ripening season, life-form, fruit type and geographical distribution. Oikos 49:244–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Debussche, M. & Isenmann, P. 1989. Fleshy fruit characters and the choices of bird and mammal seed dispersers in a Mediterranean region. Oikos 56:327–338.Google Scholar
Dudgeon, D. & Corlett, R. T. 1994. Hills and streams: an ecology of Hong Kong. Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Eriksson, O. & Ehrlen, J. 1991. Phenological variation in fruit characteristics in vertebrate-dispersed plants. Oecologia 86:463–470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fellowes, J. R. 1992. Hong Kong macaques. World Wide Fund for Nature, Hong Kong.Google Scholar
French, K. 1991. Characteristics and abundance of vertebrate-dispersed fruits in temperate wet sclerophyll forest in southeastern Australia. Australian Journal of Ecology 16:1–13.Google Scholar
Gautier-Hion, A., Duplantier, J. M., Emmons, L., Feer, F., Heckestweiler, P., Moungazi, A., Quris, R. & Sourd, C. 1985. Fruit characters as a basis of fruit choice and seed dispersal in a tropical forest vertebrate community. Oecologia 65:324–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goering, H. K. & Van Soest, P. J. 1970. Forage fiber analysis. USDA, Agricultural Handbook No. 397.Google Scholar
Herrera, C. M. 1987. Vertebrate-dispersed plants of the Iberian peninsula: a study of fruit characteristics. Ecological Monographs 57:305–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herrera, C. M. 1989. Frugivory and seed-dispersal by carnivorous mammals, and associated fruit characteristics, in undisturbed Mediterranean habitats. Oikos 55:250–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, H. F. 1986. Seed dispersal by fruit-eating birds and mammals. Pp. 123–190 in Murray, D. R. (ed.). Seed dispersal. Academic Press, Sydney.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, R. A., Willson, M. F., Thompson, J. N. & Bertin, R. I. 1985. Nutritional values of wild fruits and consumption by migrant frugivorous birds. Ecology 66:819–827.Google Scholar
Jordano, P. 1992. Fruits and frugivory. Pp. 105–156 in Fenner, M. (ed.). Seeds: the ecology of regeneration in plant communities. CAB International, Wallingford.Google Scholar
Jordano, P. 1995. Angiosperm fleshy fruits and seed dispersers: a comparative analysis of adaptation and constraints in plant-animal interactions. American Naturalist 145:163–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levey, D. J., Moermond, T. C. & Denslow, J. S. 1994. Frugivory: an overview. Pp. 282–294 in McDade, L. A., Bawa, K. S., Hespenheide, H. A. & Hartshorn, G. S. (eds). La Selva: ecology and natural history of a neotropical rain forest. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Martinez del Rio, C. & Restrapo, C. 1993. Ecological and behavioural consequences of digestion in frugivorous animals. Vegetatio 107/108:205–216.Google Scholar
Simons, D. & Bairlein, F. 1990. Neue Aspekte zur zugzeitlichen Frugivorie der Gartengrasmucke (Sylvia borin). Journal für Omithologie 131:381–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheelwright, N. T., Haber, W. A., Murray, K. G. & Guindon, C. 1984. Tropical fruit-eating birds and their food plants: a survey of a Costa Rican lower montane forest. Biotropica 16:173–192.Google Scholar
Willson, M. F. 1993. Mammals as seed-dispersal mutualists in North America. Oikos 67:159–176.Google Scholar
Willson, M. F. & Whelan, C. J. 1990. The evolution of fruit color in fleshy-fruited plants. American Naturalist 136:790–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar