Mineral nutritional inter-relations amongst stolons and tiller ramets in Agrostis stolonifera L.

Abstract

The functional organization of the clonal plant Agrostis stolonifera L. was investigated in terms of the mineral nutrient inter-relations between individual well-established stolons and between adjacent tiller ramets on a single stolon. Tillers on developing stolons were rooted individually and treatments established in which different patterns of mineral nutrient supply were given to various parts of the clone. In the first experiment with plants consisting of 2 main stolons and where the ramets of each stolon were supplied with either nutrient solution or water, the stolons displayed distinctly independent nutrient economies irrespective of the pattern of nutrient supply. In a second experiment, where the effect of uniform or local nutrient supply to a single stolon of rooted ramets was followed, the growth of ramets was very closely related to their local nutrient supply. In a further experiment the performance of rooted and unrooted ramets was compared in contrasting nutrient regimes. When situated between ramets supplied with nutrients, the growth and development of an unrooted ramet closely matched one that was rooted and supplied with nutrient solution but greatly exceeded that of one that was rooted and given only water. The independent mineral nutrient economies displayed by individual rooted stolons and by rooted tiller ramets is discussed in relation to the underlying physiological integration of the stolon axis that allows unrooted ramets and the unrooted extending apical region of a stolon to be provided with adequate mineral resources for their growth and development.