Dynamic architectural responses of morphological traits to emergence timing in Abutilon theophrasti(Malvaceae)
Architectural plasticity in traits should be useful for understanding morphological and allocation plasticity at the whole-plant level and associated growth strategies of plants in dealing with variation in emergence time.To investigate how plants respond to emergence timing via dynamic architectural plasticity,we conducted a field experiment by sowing plants of Abutilon theophrasti on different dates to make them emerge in spring,late spring,summer and late summer,as four treatments of emergence time(ET1-ET4),and measured a series of mass and morphological traits in different vertical layers(with an inter-distance of 10 or 20 cm per layer)of plants at three stages.The'vertical arch'and'inverted-cone'shapes displayed at reproductive stage by plants emerged between spring and summer(ET1-ET3)and in late summer(ET4),respectively,revealed that they had contrasting timing schemes for vegetative and reproductive growth.Plants emerged earlier had relatively isolated vegetative and reproductive stages,while late-summer emerged plants had overlapped vegetative and reproductive stages due to accelerated leaf and reproductive growth simultaneously,as a result of shortened lifetime.In spite of this,plants emerged earlier were still able to adopt different optimal strategies in dealing with their corresponding circumstances.Architectural analysis should be a useful approach to better understanding diverse plant strategies in the context of varying environmental conditions.
万方数据
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