In 1973 Chip Taylor (Univ. of KS) and I started a demography study of
what turns out to be a long-lived monocarp, the monument plant, or
green gentian, Frasera speciosa (Gentianaceae). We tagged individual
plants at an alpine study site near Cumberland Pass, about 30 miles
(straight-line) from the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. That
study is still ongoing, and has produced the following papers so far:
Inouye, D. W. and O. R. Taylor. 1980. Variation in generation time
in Frasera speciosa (Gentianaceae), a long-lived perennial monocarp.
Oecologia 47:171-174.
Taylor, O. R. and D. W. Inouye. 1985. Synchrony and periodicity of
flowering in Frasera speciosa (Gentianaceae). Ecology 66:521-527.
Inouye, D. W. 1986. Long-term preformation of leaves and
inflorescences by a long-lived perennial monocarp, Frasera speciosa,
Gentianaceae. American Journal of Botany 73:1535-1540.
and most recently (this week):
Che-Castaldo, Judy P., and David W. Inouye. 2011. The effects of
dataset length and mast seeding on the demography of Frasera
speciosa, a long-lived monocarpic plant. Ecosphere 2:art126
[doi:<http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES11-00263.1>http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES11-00263.1]
The dataset from this project now includes the annual count of number
of leaves in the basal rosettes of almost 1,500 individuals (all
those we have observed in the plot), with measurements of leaf
surface area on a subset of plants and years. The plants are mapped
to the nearest quarter square meter in an 18x29m plot at 3,740m
(12,300 ft.). I hope to keep the study going for at least a few more
years; it takes about 3 days for 4 people to do the annual census.
Some plants have been followed since they germinated so are of known
age. Estimated mean age at flowering is 40 years and the mean
estimated lifespan is 6.86 years with a high variance of 181.8 years
(details in the 2011 paper).
If you are interested in collaborating on some aspect of this study
to take advantage of the available data, please contact me. Examples
might include a paternity analysis, looking for correlates between
genotype and phenotype, analysis of spatial pattern, comparison of
populations at different altitudes (I have some unpublished data from
about 2,900m), an experimental study, etc. It's a neat plant and a
nice study site, and most of the plants we've tagged will live much
longer than I will.
David Inouye
Dr. David W. Inouye, Professor
Dept. of Biology
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-4415
Rocky Mtn. Biological Laboratory
PO Box 519
Crested Butte, CO 81224
[email protected]
301-405-6946
