Variation in survival of Iris pumila L. juvenile plants grown in two nutrient regimes

I analyzed variability of early life survival on 881 Iris pumila juvenile plants in their prereproductive period. Seedlings were produced by applying half-sib mating scheme on clones originating from two Deliblato Sand populations that were accommodated to common garden conditions. Nineteen clones served as pollen donors (sires), and the other 90 clones served as pollen recipients (dames). Seedlings were grown in two nutrient levels (full strength and 1/10 of full-strength Hoagland solution). While I failed to detect significant mean nutrient level effect as well as significant between population differentiation for prereproductive survival, a statistically significant additive genetic variability for this ultimate prereproductive measure of fitness was detected.