Gender plasticity in Sagittaria sagittifolia (Alismataceae), a monoecious aquatic species |
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Authors: | M E Dorken S C H Barrett |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Botany, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, CA |
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Abstract: | Aquatic plants are well known for their high degree of phenotypic plasticity in vegetative structures, particularly leaves.
Less well understood is the extent to which their sexuality can be modified by environmental conditions. Here we investigate
gender plasticity in the European clonal monoecious aquatic Sagittaria sagittifolia (Alismataceae) to determine how floral sex ratios may vary with plant size and inflorescence order. We sampled two populations
from aquatic habitats in East Anglia, U.K. and measured a range of plant attributes including ramet size and the number of
female and male flowers per inflorescence. The two populations exhibited similar patterns of phenotypic gender, despite contrasting
patterns of total allocation to female and male flower number. Plants produced male-biased floral sex ratios but female flower
number increased from the first to the second inflorescence whereas male flower number decreased. Size-dependent gender modification
occurred in both populations, but the patterns of allocation to female flower production differed between the two populations.
Our results are consistent with the view that monoecy is a sexual strategy that enables plants to adjust female and male allocation
in response to changing environmental conditions.
Received September 16, 2002; accepted October 23, 2002 Published online: March 20, 2003 |
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Keywords: | : Gender monoecy Sagittaria sagittifolia arrowhead Alismataceae size-dependent gender modification |
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