Sex ratio and spatial pattern of males and females in the dioecious sandhill shrub, Ceratiola ericoides ericoides (Empetraceae) Michx

Sex ratio, size, age, and spatial pattern were investigated for males and females of the dioecious shrub Ceratiola ericoides ericoides (Empetraceae) Michx. within seven mapped populations in Georgia and South Carolina, USA. Among the sites studied, two are regularly burned and one site long-unburned. Age was estimated from node counts of individual shrubs. Only one (fire-suppressed) population showed a female-biased sex ratio, while all others did not differ significantly from 1:1. Mean age estimates did not differ between sexes at any site nor did mean shrub canopy diameter. Bivariate Ripley’s K analysis with a null hypothesis of random labeling was used to investigate whether any of the mapped populations exhibited spatial segregation of the sexes (SSS). No population showed strong evidence of SSS. Rather all sites but one showed males and females to be associated (though not significantly) at a scale of 1–10 m. At a scale of 10–35 m male and female shrubs were located randomly with respect to one another at all sites.