ARCHITECTURAL EFFECTS AND THE INTERPRETATION OF PATTERNS OF FRUIT ANDSEED DEVELOPMENT

The commonly observed proximal-to-distal decrease within inflorescence s of fruit and/or seed maturation per flower has frequently been attri buted to competition among developing fruits for resources. The resear ch summarized in this review suggests, however, that the observed vari ation can also be due to architecture-that is, to sources of variation inherent in plant axes. Thus, the fate of a developing flower depends not only on the reproductive events that have preceded it during the ontogeny of the organism, but on where it occurs within the architectu re of an individual. The effects of architecture are separable experim entally from the effects of differential resource allocation, and care ful experimental analysis of these two factors will enhance our unders tanding of the physiological, developmental, and evolutionary controls of fruit and seed production in flowering plants.