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Growth and Reproduction in Forest Trees of the Cactus Opuntia excelsa 1
Author(s) -
Bullock Stephen H.,
Martijeora E.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
biotropica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.813
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1744-7429
pISSN - 0006-3606
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7429.1998.tb00096.x
Subject(s) - cladodes , cactus , biology , canopy , reproduction , botany , crown (dentistry) , horticulture , ecology , medicine , dentistry
In southwestern México, the number of new cladodes on Opuntia excelsa was a skewed bell‐shaped function of size (“size” being the number of cladodes persisting from previous years). Fruit number was a sigmoidal function of size, but the number of seeds per fruit was independent of number of fruits per plant. The curves for production of new cladodes and of fruits both showed maximum increase for plants with 150–350 cladodes, when the crowns were reaching or in the canopy. New cladode production declined at about the size where reproduction plateaued; we suggest this was due to limitation of crown dimensions by mechanical and physiological factors.