Phenotypic Gender in Plants: Effects of Plant Size and Environment on Allocation to Seeds and Flowers in Cynoglossum officinale

Phenotypic femaleness increases with plant size (dry mass) in the monocarpic perennial Cynoglossum officinale L.: in the field small plants produce, relative to their weight, many flowers with few seeds per flower, whereas large plants produce relatively few flowers with more seeds per flower. The question is whether size affects gender directly or whether the relationship between size and gender stems from a common factor. In the field large plants may grow on sites with high nutrient availability and therefore have higher nutrient concentrations or large plants may occupy spots with better environmental conditions during the seed filling stage. In an experiment in a coastal dune habitat we found no correlation between leaf nutrient concentration and plant size (...)