Summary
For the rhizomatous perennial, Solidago altissima, I identified clonal fragments in the field, mapped ramet spatial locations, and documented patterns of ramet recruitment, growth, and mortality. Parent ramet size influenced the size and number of daughter ramets produced, and small ramets had lower survivorship and fecundity than large ramets. Similarly, small rhizomes tended to develop into small ramets, and ramets that survived to produce daughter ramets had longer parent-daughter rhizome connections than ramets that did not survive. In addition, most ramets that died during the growing season were connected to (genetically identical) ramets that persisted. There were large size inequalities among rhizomes, ramets, and clonal fragments. Inequalities in the size of ramets increased during the early part of the growing season, then decreased at the end of the season; similar patterns were observed for the growth of clonal fragments. In both instances, the decrease in size inequality could be attributed to the mortality of small individuals (ramets or clonal fragments). I found little evidence that ramet size hierarchies were structured by intraspecific competition. For example, path analyses and randomization tests indicated that size variation among S. altissima ramets was influenced little by the size of their near neighbors (but was influenced by parent size and rhizome size). In addition, within-season variation for the relative size and growth rate of individual ramets led to poor correlations between early and final ramet size; this result suggests that there was no stable hierarchy of dominant and suppressed ramets. I discuss implications of my results for contrasting interpretations of clonal plant population dynamics.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Angevine MW (1983) Variations in the demography of natural populations of the wild strawberries Fragaria vesca and F. virginiana. J Ecol 71:959–974
Barkham JP (1980) Population dynamics of the wild daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus). I. Clonal growth, seed reproduction, mortality and effects of density. J Ecol 68:607–633
Bierzychudek P (1982) The demography of jack-in-the-pulpit, a forest perennial that changes sex. Ecol Monogr 52:335–351
Bishop GF, Davy AJ, Jefferies RL (1978) Demography of Hieracium pilosella in a Breck grasslands. J Ecol 66:615–629
Bradbury IK (1981) Dynamics, structure and performance of shoot populations of the rhizomatous herb Solidago canadensis L. in abandoned pastures. Oecologia 48:271–276
Bradbury IK, Hofstra G (1976) The partitioning of net energy resources in two populations of Solidago canadensis during a single developmental cycle in southern Ontario. Can J Bot 54:2449–2456
Bradbury IK, Hofstra G (1977) Assimilate distribution patterns and carbohydrate concentration changes in organs of Solidago canadensis during an annual developmental cycle. Can J Bot 55:1221–1227
Cain ML (1990) Models of clonal growth in Solidago altissima. J Ecol (in press)
Cook RE (1980) Germination and size dependent mortality in Viola blanda. Oecologia 47:115–117
Cook RE (1985) Growth and development in clonal plant populations. In: Jackson J, Buss L, Cook RE (eds) Population Biology and Evolution of Clonal organisms. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 259–296
Douglas DA (1989) Clonal growth of Salix setchelliana on glacial river gravel bars in Alaska. J Ecol 77:112–126
Duncan OD (1975) Introduction to structural equation models. Academic Press, New York, USA
Eriksson O (1986) Survivorship, reproduction and dynamics of ramets of Potentilla anserina on a Baltic seashore meadow. Vegetatio 67:17–25
Eriksson O (1988a) Patterns of ramet survivorship in clonal fragments of the stoloniferous plant Potentilla anserina. Ecology 69:736–740
Eriksson O (1988b) Ramet behaviour and population growth in the clonal herb Potentilla anserina. J Ecol 76:522–536
Goldberg DE (1987) Neighborhood competition in an old-field plant community. Ecology 68:1211–1223
Gurevitch J, Chester ST (1986) Analysis of repeated measures experiments. Ecology 66:251–255
Harper JL, Rosen BR, White J, eds (1986) The growth and form of modular organisms. Phil Trans Roy Soc London, Ser B, Biol Sci 313:1–250
Hartnett DC, Bazzaz FA (1983) Physiological integration among intraclonal ramets in Solidago canadensis. Ecology 64:779–788
Hartnett DC, Bazzaz FA (1985) The genet and ramet population dynamics of Solidago canadensis in an abandoned field. J Ecol 73:407–413
Hutchings MJ (1983) Shoot performance and population structure in pure stands of Mercurialis perennis L., a rhizomatous perennial herb. Oecologia 58:260–264
Hutchings MJ, Barkham JP (1976) An investigation of shoot interactions in Mercurialis perennis L., a rhizomatous perennial herb. J Ecol 64:723–743
Jackson J, Buss L, Cook RE (1985) Population Biology and Evolution of Clonal Organisms. Yale University Press, New Haven
Kotanen P, Jefferies RL (1987) The leaf and shoot demography of grazed and ungrazed plants of Carex subspathacea. J Ecol 75:961–975
Li CC (1975) Path analysis: a primer. Boxwood, San Francisco, California, USA
Lovett Doust L (1981) Population dynamics and local specialization in a clonal perennial (Ranunculus repens). II. The dynamics of leaves, and a reciprocal transplant-replant experiment. J Ecol 69:757–768
Mack RN, Harper JL (1977) Interference in dune annuals: spatial pattern and neighborhood effects. J Ecol 65:345–363
Maloney KA (1988) Fine scale spatial and temporal variation in the demography of a perennial bunchgrass. Ecology 69:1588–1598
Matlack GR (1987) Comparative demographies of four adjacent populations of the perennial herb Silene dioica (Caryophyllaceae). J Ecol 75:113–134
McGraw JB (1989) Effects of age and size on life histories and population growth of Rhododendron maximum shoots. Am J Bot 76:113–123
Mitchell-Olds T (1987) Analysis of local variation in plant size. Ecology 68:82–87
Nobel JC, Bell AD, Harper JL (1979) The structural demography of rhizomatous plants: Carex arenaria L. I. The morphology and flux of modular growth units. J Ecol 67:983–1008
Ohlson M (1988) Size-dependent reproductive effort in three populations of Saxifraga hirculus in Sweden. J Ecol 76:1007–1016
Pacala SW, Silander JA Jr (1985) Neighborhood models of plant population dynamics. I. Single-species models of annuals. Am Nat 125:385–411
Pitelka LF, Stanton DS, Peckenham MO (1980) Effects of light and density on resource allocation in a forest herb, Aster acuminatus (Compositae). Am J Bot 67:942–948
Pitelka LF, Hansen SB, Ashmun JW (1985) Population biology of Clintonia borealis. 1. Ramet and patch dynamics. J Ecol 73:169–183
Sakai AK, Burris TA (1985) Growth in male and female aspen clones: a twenty-five-year longitudinal study. Ecology 66:1921–1927
Sakai AK, Sharik TL (1988) Clonal growth of male and female bigtooth aspen (Populus grandidentata). Ecology 69:2031–2033
Silander JA Jr, Pacala SW (1985) Neighborhood predictors of plant performance. Oecologia 66:256–263
Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1981) Biometry. Freeman, San Francisco, California, USA
Solbrig OT, Curtis WF, Kincaid DT, Newell SJ (1988) Studies on the population biology of the genus Viola. VI. The demography of V. fimbriatula and V. lanceolata. J Ecol 76:301–319
Turner MD, Rabinowitz D (1983) Factors affecting frequency distributions of plant mass: the absence of dominance and suppression in competing monocultures of Festuca paradoxa. Ecology 64:469–475
Waller DM (1981) Neighborhood competition in several violet populations. Oecologia 51:116–122
Weiner J (1982) A neighborhood model of annual plant interference. Ecology 63:1237–1241
Weiner J (1984) Neighborhood interference amongst Pinus rigida individuals. J Ecol 72:183–185
Weiner J (1985) Size hierarchies in experimental populations of annual plants. Ecology 66:743–752
Weiner J, Solbrig OT (1984) The meaning and measurement of size hierarchies in plant populations. Oecologia 61:334–336
Weiner J, Thomas SC (1986) Size variability and competition in plant monocultures. Oikos 47:211–222
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cain, M.L. Patterns of Solidago altissima ramet growth and mortality: the role of below-ground ramet connections. Oecologia 82, 201–209 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00323536
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00323536