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Behavior of current-year shoots as a mechanism to determine the floral sex allocation at the level of individual tree and population in Siberian alder (Alnus hirsuta var. sibirica)

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Abstract

Floral sex allocation (weight of male flower buds over weight of female flower buds) was examined at the levels of current-year shoot, individual tree and population, and the tree individual level and population level floral sex ratio was explained as a consequence of the behavior of current-year shoots in the shoot-level monoecious (flowering current-year shoots have both male and female flowers) species, Siberian alder (Alnus hirsuta var. sibirica). The current-year shoot level floral sex allocation was not size-dependent and not different over years. However, in the year when the reproductive intensity was high, individual tree level floral sex allocation was size-dependent and the population level floral sex allocation was relatively female-biased. The female-biased floral sex allocation at the population level resulted from many gynoecious shoots (current-year shoots which have only female flowers). These results suggest that the floral sex allocation of Siberian alder was controlled not by changing the floral sex allocation of each current-year shoot, but by shifting the sex expression of current-year shoots from shoot-level monoecy to shoot-level gynomonoecy.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge T. Ando, K. Kurumado, N. Miyamoto, A. Mori, H. Tobita and all the staff of Takayama Research Station, Institute for Basin Ecosystem Studies, Gifu University for the support of field studies. We are grateful to H. Barclay, E. Ito and M. Suzuki for reading through the manuscript and for giving us valuable suggestions. We also acknowledge S. Nanami, T. Shirota, K. Kikuzawa, T. Kohyama and the members of Laboratory of Regional Ecosystems, Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University for their valuable advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Regional Ecosystems, Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, North 10, East 5, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan

    Shigeaki F. Hasegawa

  2. Laboratory of Forest Ecology, Division of Environmental Science and Technology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Hiroshi Takeda

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  1. Shigeaki F. Hasegawa
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  2. Hiroshi Takeda
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Correspondence to Shigeaki F. Hasegawa.

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Hasegawa, S.F., Takeda, H. Behavior of current-year shoots as a mechanism to determine the floral sex allocation at the level of individual tree and population in Siberian alder (Alnus hirsuta var. sibirica). Trees 19, 26–31 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-004-0359-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-004-0359-2

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