Plant Biol (Stuttg) 1999; 1(1): 115-120
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-978497
Original Papers

© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Effects of Sexual Reproduction on Growth and Vegetative Propagation in the Perennial Geophyte Arum italicum (Araceae)

M. Méndez
  • Dpto. Biología de Organismos y Sistemas (Unidad de Ecología), Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, España
Further Information

Publication History

1998

1998

Publication Date:
19 April 2007 (online)

Abstract

The influences of sexual reproduction on growth and vegetative propagation were analysed in three populations of the geophyte Arum italicum Miller (Araceae). In an observational study using multiple regression, a negative influence of reproduction on tuber mass was detected for two populations. In an experimental study, “control” and “inflorescence removal” treatments were imposed on plants from one of the populations. Tuber growth was significantly lower in “control” plants than in “removal” plants, indicating the existence of a somatic cost of reproduction. The somatic cost of reproduction was decreased by an increasing degree of temporal coincidence between leaves and reproductive structures on the plant. Neither the observational nor the experimental studies showed any negative effect of sexual reproduction on vegetative propagation.

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