PROLONGED DORMANCY IN VASCULAR PLANTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MONITORINGSTUDIES

Many species of geophyte vascular plants are reported to remain dorman t during the growing season. We examined data from our own and publish ed studies and found that, generally, 25% or less of the plants in the se populations demonstrated prolonged dormancy during any one year. In dividual plants usually remained dormant for 1-2 years. Population est imates of plants with prolonged dormancy based on random sampling meth ods will often underestimate density. Permanent plot methods with repe ated measures analysis can be used to monitor change in population den sity with a reduced risk of bias. Demographic monitoring studies of sp ecies with prolonged dormancy will require longer periods of time to o btain useful information.