Short‐term costs related to male and female structures in alpine Parnassia palustris

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential costs related to male and female structures in a small, hermaphroditic alpine plant species, Parnassia palustris L. We studied in the field the effect of experimental manipulation of seed set (female structures) as well as anthers and staminodes (male structures) on next year's survival, flowering, seed set and growth. We found no statistically significant differences between the treatments in survival, number of flowers and fruits, fruit/flower ratio, seed number or mean mass per seed the following year. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference in growth response between the treatments. These observations indicate both that the manipulations of the flowers the previous year had no effect on growth and that the competition between growth and sexual reproduction was negligible. Our results may reflect small investments in reproduction, abundance of soil resources and/or that all resources saved by the plant one year are not necessarily invested in reproduction or growth next year.