The number and size of seeds in common versus restricted woodland herbaceous species in central Iowa, USA

Few plants have widespread distributions and occur wherever there is suitable habitat. Most species are absent from seemingly suitable sites because of limited colonizing ability. At a landscape scale colonization is limited by lack of seeds or suitable microsites, and this limit is likely to be exacerbated by current human alteration of the landscape. To test the hypothesis that species with restricted distributions have a more limited capacity for dispersal compared to common species, I compared seed number in a group of seven common woodland herbaceous species compared to seven species in the same genus or family with more restricted distributions. Restricted species had nearly an order of magnitude fewer seeds compared to closely related common species. They also produced over an order of magnitude larger seeds. These results support dispersal limitation. The ability to detect these differences was reduced when taxonomic information was not included. The data suggest that these species can not maximize both seed size and seed number. The results are interpreted in light of the human disturbance history that has had an overriding influence on the Iowa landscape and has likely favored species with an output advantage of abundant seeds over species with far many fewer seeds.