Patterns of variation in flowering and seed set of meadowfoam

摘要

Patterns of flowering and seed set were explored by principal component (PC) analysis of counts of fresh flowers, total flowers and seeds at four observation times. This pattern analysis was attempted because of the complicated rhythms of flowering and seed set over an extended period. The approach was considered superior to regressions (over time) for this data because of these pattern complexities, and because these were few time-nodes. Also it avoided the need to find optimum regression functions. Parsimony was achieved with a two-component ordination based on truncation at 70% of the total variance. The results for all characters showed that the first component concentrated on the middle period of flowering/seed set, and de-emphasized the early phase. The second component emphasized the extremities of the flowering/seed set span. The first component accounted for a large proportion of total variance (45.5% to 69.2%), which indicated its importance. The general meaning of the first component was ‘median flowering’, ‘general flower production’ and ‘median-to-late seed set’ for these characters fresh flowers, total flowers and seed set, respectively. The results showed that PC analysis successfully summarized the complex patterns of flowering/seed set and revealed the pattern differences between plants. It was apparent that no particular pattern of general flowering and seed set could be regarded as ‘typical’ in meadowfoam. It was confirmed that the population was diverse, this being typical of segregating plants within a randomly fertilized population.