Allocation of clonal growth in goldenrod varies across species and environments

Abstract

In the prairie, the most successful plants have evolved to reproduce without a dependency on seeds (Reichmann 1987). Rhizomes, although perhaps not as glamorous as flowers, provide
prairie plants such as Solidago altissima with a dependable method of reproduction in the face of harsh competition. Biologists have found varied results as to whether there is a trade-off between clonal growth and sexual reproduction among species and environments (Schmid and Werner 1993). We designed our experiment in order to determine how much biomass three different species of goldenrod, Solidago altissima, Solidago rigida, and Solidago speciosa, allocate to their stem and leaves, roots, sexual reproduction, and clonal growth. We also examined the biomass allocation of S. altissima in burned and unburned plots. S. altissima is one of the most prominent forbs at CERA, Grinnell Colleges experimental prairie, although it was never formally seeded (Delong, unpublished manuscript). It is a perennial forb that reproduces after establishment primarily through clonal growth (Abrahamson and Weis 1997). The other two species, although native to Iowa, are much more rare at CERA in general, but were easily found in Deaner Prairie as they were heavily seeded there (DeLong, unpublished manuscript).