Sex Change in Plants: Old and New Observations and New Hypotheses

Overview

Journal Oecologia

Specialty Environmental Health

Date 2017 Mar 18

PMID 28309476

Citations 41

Authors

D C Freeman

K T Harper

E L Charnov

Affiliations

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Abstract

Evidence is presented that individuals of a large number of dioecious and subdioecious plant species are able to alter their sexual state in response to changes in the ambient environment and/or changes in size or age. We suggest that lability of sexual expression probably has survival value where a significant portion of the females must otherwise bear the cost of fruit production in unfavorable environments. We demonstrate that in patchy environments of the proper scale and variability in quality, labile sexual expression will enhance an individual's genetic contribution to the next generation.

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