Life histories of the perennial geophyte Erythronium grandiflorum (Liliaceae) in Colorado subalpine transplant garden from annual measurements, 1991 onward

Description

In an outdoor garden at Irwin, Colorado, we established glacier lily plants in open-bottomed PVC pots that protected them from gopher attack. The initial cohorts were excavated from field sites as mature corms of unknown age. Later cohorts were grown from seed, so their ages are known. Each spring since 1991, we have noted fruit and flower production. In August, after the aboveground parts have died back, we exhume the plants, wash off the soil, weigh the corms, characterize their morphology, photograph them, and replant them. If a corm splits, we replant the pieces in separate pots. The study is ongoing, with 264 plants in 2019. Main findings through 2020: plants produce 0-4 flowers per year, depending on size; most plants flower each year; death is rare, with many plants having survived the entire study; setting a fruit reduces corm substantially (cost of reproduction); plants appear to regulate weight by adjusting flower production, and by splitting; genotypes vary in splitting propensity. Oddly, mortality is higher in very large corms than in mid-sized ones. Evidence for senescence is scant.  

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