No long-term costs of meristem allocation to flowering in stoloniferous Trifolium species |
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Authors: | Heidrun Huber Heinjo J During |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Plant Sciences, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands;(2) Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Box G-W-101, Providence, RI 02912, USA |
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Abstract: | Clonal plants propagate by means of clonal growth and sexual reproduction. The commitment of meristems to branching and flowering
govern the expression of these two mutually exclusive life-history functions. We used a modelling and an experimental approach
to examine the consequences of a structural trade-off between flowering and clonal growth on future growth and fitness in
stoloniferous species with a determinate module architecture. The model revealed negative effects of flowering on vegetative
growth due to a structural trade-off at the meristem level. Total fecundity was maximized at intermediate flowering frequencies.
In addition, optimal meristem commitment to flowering depended strongly on the time available for growth and reproduction.
This indicates an interaction between optimal flowering frequency, the length of the growing period and the rate of ontogenetic
development. The greenhouse study made use of 15 genotypes of two closely related, stoloniferous Trifolium species. Despite the existence of a structural trade-off at the meristem level, we found no evidence for costs of flowering
on the whole-plant level. High allocation to flowering did not result in reduced plant performance (biomass and module production)
and total fecundity, indicating that there were no demographic costs of meristem investment to different life-history functions.
Flowering frequencies never exceeded the model prediction for optimal commitment of meristems to sexual reproduction, suggesting
strong past selection to eliminate high levels of meristem allocation to flowering. Hence, clonal growth seems to have evolutionary
priority over sexual reproduction in our species.
This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | clonal growth meristem allocation sexual reproduction trade-off Trifolium |
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