2.1 Study sites and species
Papilionanthe teres from six sites in the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), was used as the experimental material for this study. The study species, XTBG geography and climate were previously described (Zhou & Gao, 2016). The six study sites were located at the Fruit Garden (FG), Arboretum (AR), Tropical Seasonal Rainforest Area (TSRA), Vine Garden (VG), Energy Plant Garden (EPG), and Ethnic Medicinal Garden (EMG) in XTBG. About 97, 138, 87, 65, 58, 71 adult P. teres were found at the FG, AR, TSRA, VG, EPG and EMG, respectively. The study was conducted during the flowering and fruiting period of P. teres between 2019 and 2021.
The six study sites were selected for field observation and manual control experiments, such as observation of pollinator visit behavior, nectar addition experiments and hand pollination. All laboratory experiments, such as seed symbiotic and asymbiotic cultures, were conducted at the XTBG Institutional Center for Shared Technologies and Facilities, a research center for biodiversity conservation.