The evolution of cone and seed size in serotinous conifers Swarup, Karishma creator Leslie, Andrew B. advisor Brown University. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Brown University. Karen T. Romer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards research program text posters riu Providence, RI Brown University 2017 1 poster reformatted digital 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. Cupressaceae Conifers Pine cones Seeds Dispersal Phylogeny 10.26300/38wf-d425