Abstract
The ecology of reproduction is of key importance for understanding population and community ecology of plants in tropical forests. High morphological diversity of flowers, fruits, and seeds found among tropical tree species is considered to be a component of regeneration niche diversification in these forests. Seedlings of tropical forest trees also exhibit higher morphological diversity than temperate trees, but little is known about the functional significance of this morphological diversity. The seedling phase is uniquely different from the later stages of plant life in terms of dependency on maternally-derived resources and rapid developmental changes in morphology and allocation patterns. Given the small size and high mortality of seedlings, differences in form, function, and development must have great ecological significance.
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