• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• 제37권4호
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• pp.165-175
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• 2014

A natural population of Adonis multiflora, a spring ephemeral herb growing in temperate deciduous forests, was studied to determine the seed production characteristics. Plant size, flowering time, and seed number were monitored from February 2009 to May 2011 in main growing season (i.e., from March through May). The biomass rates of the shoot and the root in the A. multiflora population were 22-24% and 76-78%, respectively, and the biomass of the root was proportional to that of the shoot. The flowering rate was 60% in the plants with 1 to 2 g of shoot biomass, and 100% in the plants with >2 g of shoot biomass. In the plants with root biomass between 4 and 6 g, the flowering rate was 43% and, in the plants with the root biomass over 8 g, it was 100%. The shoot biomass was a better predictor of the flower production probability than the root biomass. The number of flowers and seeds was closely correlated to shoot biomass at 1% significance level. The size of the plant that produced seed excessively instead of the shoot biomass in one year typically decreased in the next year and vice versa. The flowering time and its duration were closely related to the number of faithful seeds but not to that of total seeds. The number of faithful seeds was proportionate to flowering duration and inversely proportionate to flowering time (year day, YD). In a plant, the number of faithful seeds noticeably decreased with the inflorescence (i.e., order of flower in a plant), and this difference between the two successive flowers was significant at the 1% level between the first and the third flower in 2009 and 2011 but not between the third and the fourth. However, the number of total seeds was mostly similar in the first through the fourth flower for all three years.