What are the relative costs, limits and correlates of increased degree of serotiny?

Abstract

AbstractThere is variability in the period that serotinous species retain seeds in protective closed cones and in the sizes of the cones. Seed predation and inter‐fire recruitment have been suggested to be reasons for this variability. I argue against these two reasons. Variation in annual rates of increase in fecundity and in numbers of flowering episodes before fire should be correlated with the degree of serotiny. These two attributes are a consequence of cone size, plant architecture and degree of serotiny.