Factors affecting the production, growth, and survival of sprouting stems in the multi-stemmed understory shrub Lindera triloba

Abstract

We investigated the structure and dynamics of the multi-stemmed understory shrub Lindera triloba (Sieb. et Zucc.) Blume over 3 years in an old-growth coniferous forest, and quantitatively evaluated the factors affecting the ramet production, growth, and survival. Most genets sprouted continuously and exhibited multiple-stemmed structures with a few large and many small ramets. The skewed ramet-size distribution within genets resulted from the local crowding of neighboring trees, but not from the number of ramets within genets. This indicated that inter-plant competition is asymmetric (i.e., larger individuals outcompete one-sidedly smaller ones), but intra-plant competition (i.e., competition among ramets within genets) is symmetric (i.e., smaller ones also competitively affect larger ones). The local crowding of neighboring understory trees consistently negatively affected the ramet production, growth, and survival of L. triloba. Intra-genet crowding (i.e., crowding of ramets within genets) also negatively affected the ramet dynamics. On the other hand, the largest-ramet size within genets had positive relationships with the ramet dynamics, indicating that physiological integration within genets plays a role as supporting younger ramets. Based on our results, to fully understand genet persistence strategies in clonal shrub species, it is important to consider the effects of intra-genet crowding and modular integration, as well as plant-to-plant interaction.