Format: ORAL

Lars Gtzenberger1,2, Marketa Applova1,2, Anna E-Vojtko1.

1 Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy o f Sciences, Trebon, Czech Republic. 2 Department of Botany, University of South Bohemia, Budweis, Czech Republic.

Understanding resource allocation strategies in plants is crucial for unraveling ecological and evolutionary dynamics. The traditional fast-slow continuum is a well-established framework that has primarily been explored through vegetative above and below-ground traits of leaves and roots. Recent propositions suggest the existence of a floral economic spectrum (FES) that parallels leaf traits, in particular with regard to area and mass-related traits, as well as longevity of individual organs. In a survey of herbs across a wide range of plant families, we confirm the expected negative correlation between specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) but also demonstrate a similar relationship in flowers, i.e. a negative correlation between specific floral area (SFA) and floral dry matter content (FDMC). Across organs, the analogous traits are positively associated, i.e. FDMC correlates positively with LDMC, and SLA with SFA. In addition, with data from a greenhouse experiment of 8 species, we show that these relationships also hold within species, and are influenced by water availability. Our findings show that flowers and leaves, though serving very different functions, are constrained at least to some degree with respect to their morphology and structure. The often-assumed independent evolution of floral characters depends much on what traits are considered, and the same can be said about the previously reported independent dimension of floral traits in the space of plant form and function.