An invasive plant can overcome pollination specialisation with a versatile breeding system.

[Abstract: Related publication]: Plants with specialised pollination syndromes are less likely to become invasive compared to those with generalist syndromes, yet some highly invasive species have specialised syndromes. Few empirical studies have investigated the reproductive biology of invasive plants with specialised pollination syndromes, preventing a deep understanding of this apparent contradiction. Senna species (Fabaceae) exhibit the specialised buzz-pollination syndrome, and several Senna species are invasive globally. We assessed whether Senna obtusifolia could reproduce uniparentally via autonomous selfing, vector-mediated selfing, or without pollen (apomixis). We assessed whether it was pollen limited in either the studied native (Mexico) or invaded (Australia) regions. We experimentally manipulated pollinator access and pollen deposition in both regions and found that up to 40% of flowers set fruit from self-pollination and up to 24% of flowers set fruit in the absence of pollen. We found no evidence that S. obtusifolia was pollen limited in either region, suggesting that it has attracted suitable pollinators in both studied regions. Software/equipment used to create/collect the data: Excel and R Studio Software/equipment used to manipulate/analyse the data: R version 4.4.1 (2024-06-14 ucrt) -- "Race for Your Life" Copyright (C) 2024 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 Microsoft office - version 2108; Windows 11 OS The full methodology is available in the Open Access publication from the Related publications link below. The dataset consists of: experimental breeding system data for Senna obtusifolia, including fruit set and viable seed production across pollination treatments in native and invaded regions (CSV file), together with supporting R analysis outputs, statistical code, model diagnostics, and generated figures rendered in HTML format.