02623nas a2200241   4500008004100000245016100041210006900202300001500271490000700286520182700293653001502120653001702135653001302152653001302165653001302178653002002191653002302211653001302234653002802247100001402275700001902289856007302308       2011                        eng d00aBud production and dynamics of flowering and vegetative tillers of the perennial grass Andropogon gerardii (Poaceae):  the role of developmental constraints0 aBud production and dynamics of flowering and vegetative tillers   a1293 -12980 v983 a<p>&bull;Premise of the Study: Perennial grasses maintain aboveground tiller populations through vegetative reproduction via belowground buds and sexual reproduction via seed. The maintenance of a bud bank has important demographic consequences for perennial grasses. A tradeoff between these reproductive modes would be expected for a plant with limited resource availability. However, the ontogeny of the tiller could affect its ability to allocate between these two modes of reproduction. &bull;Methods: Vegetative bud production and dynamics and tiller production were examined biweekly through an annual cycle on vegetative and flowering tillers of Andropogon gerardii. &bull;Key Results: Andropogon gerardii maintains a large reserve of dormant buds. Although vegetative and flowering tillers had similar bud phenology, flowering tillers produced larger numbers of buds of larger size, and transitioned a larger proportion of their buds to tiller, than did vegetative tillers. Therefore, a negative consequence of sexual reproduction on vegetative reproduction was not evident at the tiller level. A size threshold for floral induction likely exists that results in flowering tillers having more buds per tiller than vegetative tillers. The increased bud outgrowth of flowering tillers could be a result of their larger bud size or weaker apical dominance as compared to vegetative tillers. &bull;Conclusions: Plant development can place significant constraints on tradeoffs between the reproductive modes in perennial grasses and could affect their plasticity in plant reproductive allocation. Differences in developmental phenology and bud production between flowering and vegetative tillers may influence grass responses to environmental changes such as altered precipitation regimes or resource availability.</p>10aallocation10aaxillary bud10aBud bank10aMeristem10aontogeny10aperennial grass10aTiller recruitment10atradeoff10aVegetative reproduction1 aOtt, J.P.1 aHartnett, D.C.  uhttps://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3732/ajb.1000264