Title Information
Non Sort
The
Title
evolution of cone and seed size in serotinous conifers
Name: Personal
Name Part
Swarup, Karishma
Role
Role Term: Text
creator
Name: Personal
Name Part
Leslie, Andrew B.
Role
Role Term: Text
advisor
affiliation
Brown University. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. Karen T. Romer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards
Role
Role Term: Text
research program
Type of Resource
text
Genre (aat)
posters
Origin Information
Place
Place Term: Code (MARC Country Code)
riu
Place
Place Term: Text
Providence, RI
Publisher
Brown University
Date Created (keyDate="yes", encoding="w3cdtf")
2017
Physical Description
Extent
1 poster
digitalOrigin
reformatted digital
Abstract
Serotiny, or the retention of seeds on a parent plant, is a dispersal strategy seen across many groups of plants. Serotiny may be correlated with the evolution of other reproductive traits, such as robust woody cones or fruits that protect these long-held seeds, but this has rarely been analyzed in an explicit phylogenetic framework. We tested whether serotinous plants produce larger, more robust reproductive structures using the Cupressaceae clade of conifers. Using cone size measurements of cones from 83 species housed in herbarium collections, we found that serotinous lineages repeatedly evolve larger and more robust cones, consistent with the idea that these structures do protect seeds. This study illustrates how seed dispersal ecology, particularly serotiny, can strongly influence the evolution of plant reproductive structures.
Subject (LCSH)
Topic
Cupressaceae
Subject (LCSH)
Topic
Conifers
Subject (LCSH)
Topic
Pine cones
Subject (LCSH)
Topic
Seeds
Topic
Dispersal
Subject (LCSH)
Topic
Phylogeny
Identifier: DOI
10.26300/38wf-d425