Pollen limitation (PL) in plant populations is supposed to be particularly strong in variable pollinator environments. Here, we examined the extent of PL in the coastal Atacama Desert, where low and unpredictable rainfall drives large interannual variation in plant cover and pollinator abundances. We estimated PL levels and the capacity for autonomous selfing (autofertility) in 16 annual and perennial species. In addition, we compared fruit set of emasculated and intact flowers to test whether selfing provides reproductive assurance. We also examined the relationships between autofertility and life forms, between PL and autofertility, and between PL and flower size. We found a low level of PL ( \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault...