Altitudinal variation in flowering area and position and their ecological significances of an alpine cushion <i>Arenaria polytrichoides,</i> a gynodioecious herb

Abstract

Aims As foundation species in the alpine ecosystems, the reproduction and recruitment of alpine cushion plants are very important for sustaining the alpine ecosystem functions. However, it still remains unclear that how cushion plants effectively allocate resources to optimize reproductive fitness. Methods Here we selected five populations of a gynodioecious herb Arenaria polytrichoides with different exposures and slopes along an altitudinal gradient on the Baima snow mountain in northwest Yunnan, southwest China, to investigate and compare flowering area and positions, within and among populations and between female and hermaphroditic morphs. By doing so, we further discuss how the environmental stresses affect the cushion's flowering attributes thus the population-level reproduction. Important findings The results showed that, individual plant size and resources allocated to flowering (flowering area %) both decreased with increasing elevation, indicating that the reproductive allocation strategy was significantly affected by elevation. However, a population at lower elevation showed lower reproductive investment than higher populations, suggesting that elevation was not the only factor affecting the cushion's reproductive

Sex-specific facilitation and reproduction of the gynodioecious cushion plant Arenaria polytrichoides on the Himalaya-Hengduan mountains, SW China

“…We thus assessed the flowering ratio (i.e . , flowering area/total individual surface area × 100%) on the surface of each labeled individual and took it as the predictor of the total flower reproduction of a single cushion individual (also see Zhang et al., 2020 ; Chen et al., 2023 ). For this, we initially adopted the protocol proposed by Zhang et al.…”

“…, flowering area/total individual surface area × 100%) on the surface of each labeled individual and took it as the predictor of the total flower reproduction of a single cushion individual (also see Zhang et al., 2020 ; Chen et al., 2023 ). For this, we initially adopted the protocol proposed by Zhang et al. (2020) to assess the flowering ratios for the first 50 randomly chosen individuals in each cushion population, regardless of their sex morphs.…”