The Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity in Plants

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an individual organism to alter its physiology/morphology in response to changes in environmental conditions. This ability is particularly important in plants, whose sessile life-style requires them to deal with ambient conditions. This review focuses on issues related to the evolution of phenotypic plasticity in plants-factors responsible for differences in plasticity between populations or species (e.g. selection, drift), the presence of plasticity variation among taxa, the relationship between character correlations and character plasticities, and the assessment of the ecological role of phenotypic plasticity. In addition, a section is provided to introduce methods and problems of analyzing data from plasticity experiments. As a general rule, references are provided as an entrance to the literature and do not represent an exhaustive list. Bradshaw's review (20) remains the best introduction to the subject; this review is intended to complement his, not to replace it. The notion that plants respond morphologically to changes in their environment has a long tradition. Work by Turesson (139), Clausen et al (27), and others (see 20 for review) firmly documented the nature and extent of phenotypic responses to varied environments. Classic examples such as sun vs shade leaves (143), heterophylly (29, 30, 35), environmental control of cleistogamy (153), and the responses to herbivory (58, 84), mowing (147), and competition (140) all represent cases of phenotypic plasticity. These and other good examples support the notion that plastic responses are adaptive. Note, however, that the definition of phenotypic plasticity does not imply that such responses are necessarily adaptive. Plant response to an environmental

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