AbstractThe genus Cyrtopodium comprises about 42 species distributed from southern Florida to northern Argentina. Cyrtopodium polyphyllum occurs on rocks or in sandy soils, in restinga vegetation along the Brazilian coast. It flowers during the wet season and its inflorescences produce a high number of resupinate yellow flowers. Cyrtopodium polyphyllum offers no rewards to its pollinators, but mimics the yellow, reward‐producing flowers of nearby growing Stigmaphyllon arenicola (oil) and Crotalaria vitellina (nectar) individuals. Several species of bee visit flowers of C. polyphyllum, but only two species of Centris (Centris tarsata and Centris labrosa) act as pollinators. Visits to flowers of C. polyphyllum were scarce and, as a consequence, low‐fruit set was recorded under natural conditions. Such low‐fruit production contrasts with the number of fruits each plant bears after manual pollination, suggesting deficient pollen transfer among plants. C. polyphyllum is self‐compatible and has a high‐fruit set in both manual self‐ and cross‐pollinated flowers. Furthermore, fruits (2%) are formed by self‐pollination assisted by rain. This facultative self‐pollination mechanism is an impo
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