CONTINUOUS WITHIN-PLANT VARIATION AS A SOURCE OF INTRASPECIFIC FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY: PATTERNS, MAGNITUDE, AND GENETIC CORRELATES OF LEAF VARIABILITY IN HELLEBORUS FOETIDUS (RANUNCULACEAE)

摘要

Premise of the study: Continuous within-plant variation in quantitative traits of reiterated, homologous structures is a component of intraspecific variation, but its contribution to functional diversity remains largely unexplored. For the perennial Helleborus foetidus, we measured functional leaf traits to quantify the contribution of within-plant variation to intraspecific functional variance and evaluate whether within-plant variability itself deserves separate consideration.