Pollination Ecology of Pedicularis parryi ssp. purpurea (Parry) Carr (Scrophulariaceae)

The pollination ecology of Pedicularis parryi purpurea growing in a drier, upland, sagebrush meadow was studied in association with P. bracteosa paysoniana immediately adjacent in a rich, moist willow thicket in the Teton Mountain Region of Wyoming. By insect exclosure, P. parryi purpurea was found to be Bombus pollinator‐dependent. While both plants bloomed synchronously, had nectariferous corollas with similar nectars analyzed by refractometry and thin‐layer chromatography, and shared the same eight Bombus pollinator species, P. parryi purpurea was pollinated primarily by short‐tongued, sternotribic pollen‐foragers and P. bracteosa by long‐tongued, nototribic, nectar gatherers. Microscopic examination of 276 corbicular pollen loads from Pedicularis pollinators to determine pollen‐foraging constancy yielded 49% queens and 82% workers constant on P. parryi purpurea , 83% queens and 78% workers on P. bracteosa paysoniana. No putative hybrids between these species were identified; hybridization in Pedicularis is considered rare or absent.