Differences in physiological integration between invasive and noninvasive introduced clonal species of Carpobrotus

Aims Clonal growth is associated with invasiveness in introduced plant species, but few studies have compared invasive and noninvasive introduced clonal species to investigate which clonal traits may underlie invasiveness. To test the hypothesis that greater capacity to increase clonal growthviaphysiological integration of connected ramets increases invasiveness in clonal plants, we compared the effects of severing connections on accumulation of mass in the two species of the creeping, succulent, perennial, herbaceous genusCarpobrotusthat have been introduced on sand dunes along the Pacific Coast of northern California, the highly invasive speciesCarpobrotus edulisand the co-occurring, noninvasive speciesCarpobrotus chilensis.