Seed weight as a function of life form, elevation and life zone in Neotropical forests
Biotropica
1985
Journal Article
17
1
32-39
Parque Nacional del Manu Plants Vascular plants Spermatophytes Angiosperms Monocots Dicots seeds morphology ecology life form large spatial scales trees shrubs epiphytes herbs Madre de Dios Bibliography
Seeds from over 365 spp. of eight plant families (Melastomataceae, Gesneriaceae, Bromeliaceae, Bignoniaceae, Araliaceae, Myrsinaceae, Campanulaceae, and Rubiaceae) were excised, and dry wt determined, from fruit previously collected from Costa Rica, Panama and Peru, and deposited in the US National Museum of Natural History. This study was undertaken to determine whether data from tropical plants were consistent with temperate zone work showing correlations of seed size with life form and certain aspects of the physical environment. In order to control for intraspecific variation, a seed wt class system (Baker 1972) was used. As seen in temperature zone studies, tropical species show significant differences in seed wt means among trees, shrubs and herbs (largest to smallest). Tropical epiphytes, however, show a bimodal pattern; though seeds from some plant families (e.g., Orchidaceae) are tiny, many epiphyte seeds (primarily from Melastomataceae, Gesneriaceae and Bromeliaceae) were equivalent to, or larger than, those of shrubs. Seeds from tropical herbaceous vines were comparable in wt to those of herbs, while seeds of woody lianas(all from Bignoniaceae) were comparable to trees in wt. Seed wt analyzed by elevation and life zone showed no conclusive patterns.