Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T11:28:42.950Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reproductive Behaviour of Natural Populations of Meadow Salsify (Tragopogon pratensis)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

Meiqin QI ,
Mahesh K. Upadhyaya  and
Roy Turkington
Meiqin QI
Affiliation:
Dep. Plant Sci., Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4, Canada
Mahesh K. Upadhyaya
Affiliation:
Dep. Plant Sci., Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4, Canada
Roy Turkington
Affiliation:
Dep. Bot., Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The reproductive characteristics of natural populations of meadow salsify were monitored between May 1990 and October 1991. Plants in even-aged populations did not produce seeds prior to the second winter and plants in uneven-aged populations died after seed production suggesting that meadow salsify at this site is a monocarpic perennial and not a true biennial. Delayed seed production may enhance abundance of this species by increasing the size of its bud bank. Plants of uneven-aged populations flowered over a range of root crown diameters; the percentage of plants bearing flowers increased with increasing root crown diameters. The minimum root crown diameter at which plants flowered in 1990 and 1991 was 0.2 and 0.6 cm respectively demonstrating that factor(s) other than plant size regulate flowering in this species. Seed production ranged between 100 to 850 seeds per plant. Total number of flower heads per plant and florets per plant were positively correlated with each other and with the root crown diameter. Root crown diameter is, therefore, a good indicator of potential fecundity in meadow salsify. Greater seed production by larger plants may compensate, at least in part, for the high juvenile mortality and longer generation time in this species. The results suggest that prolific seed production and long vegetative survival are important strategies in the maintenance of meadow salsify populations.

Keywords

Meadow salsify (meadow goat's-beard), Tragopogon pratensis L., ♯ TROPRMeadow goat's-beardfloweringTROPR
Type
Weed Biology and Ecology
Information
Weed Science , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 68 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by the Weed Science Society of America 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

1. Agriculture Canada, 1988. Soils of the Williams Lake-Alexis Creek area, British Columbia, report No. 53, British Columbia soil survey.Google Scholar
2. Baskin, J. M. and Baskin, C. C. 1979. Studies on the autecology and population biology of the monocarpic perennial Grindelia lanceolata . Am. Midl. Nat. 102: 290–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3. De Jong, T. J. and Klinkhamer, P. G. L. 1988. Population ecology of the biennials Cirsium vulgare and Cynoglossum officinale in a coastal sand-dune area. J. Ecol. 76: 366–382.Google Scholar
4. De Jong, T. J., Klinkhamer, P. G. L., and Prins, A. H. 1986. Flowering behaviour of the monocarpic perennial Cynoglossum officinale L. New Phytol. 103: 219–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5. De Jong, T. J., Klinkhamer, P. G. L., Geritz, S. A. H., and Van der Meijden, E. 1989. Why biennials delay flowering: an optimization model and field data on Cirsium vulgare and Cynoglossum officinale . Acta Bot. Neerl. 38: 41–55.Google Scholar
6. Gross, K. L. 1981. Prediction of fate from rosette size in four “biennial” plant species: Verbacum thapsus, Oenothera biennis, Daucus carota, and Tragopogon dubius . Oecologia 48: 209–213.Google Scholar
7. Gross, R. S. and Werner, P. A. 1983. Probabilities of survival and reproduction relative to rosette size in the common burdock (Arctium minus: Compositae). Am. Midl. Nat. 109: 185–193.Google Scholar
8. Hara, T. 1984. A stochastic model and the moment dynamics of the growth and size distribution in plant populations. J. Theor. Biol. 109: 173–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. Harper, J. L. 1977. Pages 515–547 in Population biology of plants. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
10. Hutchings, M. J. 1986. The structure of plant populations. Pages 97–136 in Crawley, M. J., ed. Plant Ecology. Blackwell Sci. Publ. Oxford.Google Scholar
11. Kachi, N. and Hirose, T. 1983. Bolting induction in Oenothera erythrosepala Borbas in relation to rosette size, vernalization, and photoperiod. Oecologia (Berlin) 60: 6–9.Google Scholar
12. Kelly, D. 1985. On strict and facultative biennials. Oecologia 67: 292–294.Google Scholar
13. Kelly, D. 1989. Demography of short-lived plants in chalk grassland. I. Life cycle variation in annuals and strict biennials. J. Ecol. 77: 747–769.Google Scholar
14. Klinkhamer, P. G. L., De Jong, T. J., and Meelis, E. 1987. Delay of flowering in the “biennial” Cirsium vulgare: size effects and devernalization. Oikos 49: 303–308.Google Scholar
15. Lacey, E. P. 1986. The genetic and environmental control of reproductive timing in a short-lived monocarpic species Daucus carota (Umbelliferae). J. Ecol. 74: 73–86.Google Scholar
16. Peterson, D. L. and Bazzaz, F. A. 1978. Life cycle characteristics of Aster pilosus in early successional habitats. Ecology 59: 1005–1013.Google Scholar
17. Powell, R. D. 1988. Diffuse knapweed (Centaurea diffusa): reproductive thresholds, population ecology and responses to the interaction of the buprestid beetle Sphenoptera jugoslavia. . The University of British Columbia. Canada. 133 pp.Google Scholar
18. Qi, M. Q. and Upadhyaya, M. K. 1993. Seed germination ecophysiology of meadow salsify (Tragopogon pratensis) and western salsify (T. dubius). Weed Sci. 41: 362–368.Google Scholar
19. Qi, M.Q., Upadhyaya, M. K., and Turkington, R. Dynamics of seed bank and survivorship of meadow salsify (Tragopogon pratensis) populations. Weed Sci. (in press).Google Scholar
20. Sarukhán, J., Martinez-Ramos, M., and Piñero, D. 1984. The analysis of demographic variability at the individual level and its populational consequences. Pages 83–106 in Dirzo, R. and Sarukhan, J. eds. Perspectives on Plant Population Ecology. Sinauer Associates Inc., Sunderland. Massachusetts.Google Scholar
21. Upadhyaya, M. K., Qi, M. Q., Furness, N. H., and Cranston, R. 1993. Meadow goat's-beard and western goat's-beard—two rangeland weeds of British Columbia. Rangelands 15: 148–149.Google Scholar
22. Van der Meijden, E. and Van der Waals-Kooi, R. E. 1979. The population ecology of Senecio jacobaea in a sand dune system. I. Reproductive strategy and the biennial habitat. J. Ecol. 67: 131–153.Google Scholar
23. Weiner, J. 1988. Variation in the performance of individuals in plant populations. Pages 59–82 in Davy, A. J., Hutchings, M. J. and Watkinson, A. R. eds. Plant Population Ecology. 28th Symposium of the Br. Ecol. Soc. Blackwell Sci. Publ., Oxford.Google Scholar
24. Werner, P. A. 1975. Prediction of fate from rosette size in teasel (Dipsacus fullonum L.). Oecologia 20: 197–201.Google Scholar
25. Wilkinson, L. 1990. SYSTAT: The system for statistics. Systat Inc., Evanston. IL.Google Scholar