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Sex change in tree species: long‐term monitoring of sex expression in Acer rufinerve
Author(s) -
Ushimaru Atushi,
Matsui Kiyoshi
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
nordic journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1756-1051
pISSN - 0107-055X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-1051.2001.tb00785.x
Subject(s) - sex change , biology , female sex , sex ratio , botany , demography , physiology , medicine , fishery , fish <actinopterygii> , population , sociology
We monitored sex expression in Acer rufinerve from 1986 to 1999, in order to study branch‐autonomous sex changes in tree species. During this observation period, 70 of 338 stems (20.7 %) changed sexual expression. Fifty of these sex‐changed stems exhibited monoecism (having both female and male branches) in the course of the sex change, while the remaining stems changed directly from male to female or vice versa. A sex change resulting in monoecism was called a partial sex change and a total male/female change was referred to as a complete sex change. The mean diameter at breast height of stems that partially changed sex was significantly greater than that of stems that changed sex completely. Thus, it was primarily large stems with many branches that underwent partial sex changes. These findings suggest that sex change is a branch autonomous event in A. rufinerve and underline the importance of taking branching structure into account when studying sex change in trees.