Abstract
From a global point of view, thorny, spiny and prickly plants that are protected by such physical defenses from mammalian or avian herbivores (Cooper and Owen-Smith 1986; Janzen 1986; Grubb 1992) are more common in arid regions of the world than in humid ones (Carlquist 1974; Parsons and Moldenke 1975; Shmida 1981; Milton 1991; Grubb 1992). These trends are in accordance with the general pattern of stronger anti-herbivory defense found in slow-growing plants in habitats with limited resources (McKey et al. 1978; Coley et al. 1985; Endara and Coley 2011). Ronel et al. (2010) tested if this global perspective is mirrored concerning the flowering phenology of spiny versus non-spiny plants in the flora of Israel.
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Lev-Yadun, S. (2016). Spiny East Mediterranean Plant Species Flower Later and in a Drier Season Than Non-spiny Species. In: Defensive (anti-herbivory) Coloration in Land Plants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42096-7_35
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42096-7_35
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