Abstract
This study examined the importance of clonal integration on the growth and
mortality of a tropical dune plant, Ipomoea pes-caprae
L. (Roth), in response to two stresses: sand burial and defoliation. Sand
burial and artificial defoliation treatments were applied to one shoot on
daughter ramets, some of which were connected to other ramets and some of
which were not connected to other ramets. Sand burial significantly enhanced
both stem growth and leaf production of the buried shoots, both for connected
and unconnected ramets. Defoliation decreased stem growth of shoots other than
the defoliated shoot, but only for unburied ramets. Defoliation also had a
greater negative effect on growth of other shoots on connected ramets than on
unconnected ramets. At the level of the entire ramet, burial stimulated both
stem growth and leaf production for connected ramets, but not for unconnected
ramets. These results support the hypothesis that physiological integration
between ramets mediates the response to both sand burial and defoliation in
Ipomoea pes-caprae.
Subject
Plant Science,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
17 articles.
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