The impact of timing of resource availability on clonal propagation of species with different growth forms

Abstract

In nature, resource availability varies not only in space, but also in time. There is some evidence that initial growth conditions influence the future life of genets and affect their clonal propagation and that this effect might depend on the clonal growth form of the plant. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of different timing of resource availability on clonal propagation of species with contrasting lengths of rhizomes. Genets of four taxa (two pairs of phylogenetically close taxa, one with long rhizomes and the other with short ones) were grown from seeds initially in either nutrient-poor or nutrient-rich soil and then transplanted again into either nutrient-poor or nutrient-rich soil. The growth and clonal propagation of plants were evaluated after one growing season. Contrary to expectations, we found almost no evidence of the impact of the growth form on the plants’ response to the timing of resource availability, but there was a strong effect of the family of the taxa. Our results demonstrate that from clonal propagation perspective, it is more important to have resources available during the early period of plant growth, and resource availability at a later period of life is more important for the size of plants. The results hint that the abundance of resources during the development of meristems is more important for clonal propagation than accumulation of resources during the early period of growth. As there are differences between species in these responses the temporal variation of resource availability may impact species coexistence.