Allometry and life history of a forest understory palmPinanga coronata(Arecaceae) on Mount Halimun, West Java

Abstract

We studied the allometry and life history of an understory palm Pinanga coronata (Arecaceae) in a tropical montane rainforest on Mount Halimun, West Java, Indonesia. When the palm was small, the diameter of the stem increased with the minimum amount of vertical growth needed for new leaves to emerge (juvenile stage). After the base diameter of the stem and the length of the leaves reached a sufficient size (3.5 cm and 207.7 cm, respectively), the palm started to elongate the stem vertically (adult stage). The total mass and area of leaves in the crown increased with increasing stem mass, and approached constant values asymptotically. At the adult stage, the palm increased specific gravity of the lower part of the stem as it grew taller to support the increasing mass of crown and stem. To avoid self‐shading, crown architecture changed as the plant grew larger; leaf blades became longer and narrower and petiole length increased to display leaves efficiently away from the stem. The palm also produced clonal sprouting shoots and formed small clumps. Each clump contained an average of 7.5 shoots. The spatial distribution of the palm was strongly affected by topography, but only minimally affected by light conditions. The architectural adaptation to shaded conditions, effective dispersal of fruits and clonal growth are likely to be the factors that allow P. coronata to be one of the most dominant understory plant species in the study area.

Potential of High-Resolution Satellite Imagery for Mapping Distribution and Evaluating Ecological Characteristics of Tree Species at the Angkor Monument, Cambodia

“…Thus, nonlinearity of the allometric relationship on log−log plots was compared using analysis of variance; i.e., the significance of a decrease in the RSS was tested at the expense of reducing d.f. (Aiba andKohyama 1997, Kimura andSimbolon 2002)…”

Growth and reproduction of the understory palm Geonoma schottiana Mart. in the gallery forest in Central Brazil

“…Some non-destructive variables as the stem diameter (Chazdon 1991(Chazdon , 1992; individual height, measured from the top of highest expanded leaf to the soil (Bullock 1980, Chazdon 1992; and individual length, measured along the stem, following its tortuosity (Chazdon 1992, Kimura & Simbolon 2002, Souza et al 2003) have frequently been used in studies with palm trees.…”

“…When the stem is aerial, its diameter scarcely increases in the remainder of the life cycle (Chazdon 1991, Kimura & Simbolon 2002. Plant height is also not a useful variable, because stems in G. schottiana frequently are leaning, tortuous or partially lying on the soil, similarly to other palms (Chazdon 1992, Kimura & Simbolon 2002, Souza et al 2003, Watanabe et al 2006.…”

Growing straight versus growing decumbent: soil quality and allometry in Syagrus glaucescens Becc. (Arecaceae), an endemic and threatened palm of the Espinhaço Mountains, Brazil

“…Plant allometry, the study of size-correlated variations in organic form and process (Niklas 1994), is a powerful tool in understanding not only how abiotic factors cause these variations but also to investigate adaptive differences among species, competitive interactions, forest structure and dynamics, and plant life history (e.g., Niklas 1993;2006;Weiner & Fishman 1994;Sposito & Santos 2001;Kimura & Simbolon 2002;Poorter et al 2012).…”

“…Allometric studies in the Neotropics have been focused primarily on rainforest species (e.g., King 1996;Fontes 1999;Alves & Santos 2002;Kimura & Simbolon 2002;Osunkoya et al 2007;Calvo-Alvarado et al 2008;Rosseto et al 2013) in an attempt to link the allometry of supporting and photosynthesizing structures with different life histories and light assimilation strategies (see also Lüttge et al 2007). …”