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Clonal integration affects allocation in the perennial herb Alternanthera philoxeroides in N-limited homogeneous environments

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Abstract

Most work on clonal growth in plants has focused on the advantages of clonality in heterogeneous habitats. We hypothesized (1) that physiological integration of connected ramets within a clone can also increase plant performance in homogeneous environments, (2) that this effect depends on whether ramets differ in ability to take up resources, and (3) that only ramets with relatively low uptake ability benefit. We tested these hypotheses using the perennial amphibious herb Alternanthera philoxeroides. We grew clonal fragments and varied numbers of rooted versus unrooted ramets, connection between the apical and basal parts of fragments, and availability of nitrogen. Patterns of final size and mass of fragments did not support these hypotheses. By some measures, severance did reduce the growth of more apical ramets and increase the growth of less apical ones, consistent with net apical transfer of resources. Rooting of individual ramets strongly influenced their growth: second and third most apical ramets each grew most when they were the most apical rooted ramet, and this pattern was more pronounced under higher nitrogen levels. This adds to the evidence that signalling between ramets is an important aspect of clonal integration. Overall, the results indicate that physiological integration between ramets within clones in homogeneous environments can alter the allocation of resources between connected ramets even when it does not affect the total growth of clonal fragments.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Da-Yong Zhou, Bi-Cheng Dong, Guan-Wen Wei, Yun-Peng Liu, Wan-Li Wang, Xiang-Qi Pu and Ji-Zhong Wan for their assistance during plant cultivation and harvesting, and Jitka Klimešová for helpful editorial suggestions. The research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2015ZCQ-BH-01), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC1201100), NSFC (31570413) and by the Chinese Scholarship Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forest University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Pu Wang & Fei-Hai Yu

  2. Biology Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Pu Wang & Peter Alpert

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  1. Pu Wang
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  2. Peter Alpert
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  3. Fei-Hai Yu
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Correspondence to Fei-Hai Yu.

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Wang, P., Alpert, P. & Yu, FH. Clonal integration affects allocation in the perennial herb Alternanthera philoxeroides in N-limited homogeneous environments. Folia Geobot 52, 303–315 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-016-9273-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-016-9273-9

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