Variations in ageing and meristematic activity in relation to flower-bud and fruit excision in the Beta species...

• Removal of developing fruits delays ageing in many annual plant species. This has long been seen as evidence that ageing is caused by resource depletion due to fruit development. Excision experiments can be interpreted from both evolutionary-ecology and resource-allocation viewpoints. Iteroparous (reproducing repeatedly) and annual plants may show different responses to excision. Furthermore, under the resource-depletion hypothesis, the more precocious the excision of reproductive organs, the greater the effect on allocation patterns. • A controlled-conditions experiment was set up involving six life cycles (from long-lived iteroparous to annual taxa of wild beets, Beta spp.) under three treatments of excision of reproductive-parts (buds, fruits and control). • Treatment effect was similar in semelparous and iteroparous beets, although effect on reproduction was more obvious in iteroparous ones. Flower-bud removal tended to induce resource allocation in new reproductive meristems, whatever the life cycle, without any effect on ageing in semelparous beets and probably none on survival in most iteroparous plants. Fruit removal had no effect. • These results and the occurrence of between-accessions variation are discussed in terms of the ecological significance of optimal allocation strategies.