SEX AND SIZE IN COSEXUAL PLANTS

There are conceptual and practical difficulties in measuring the exact shape of fitness-gain curves and sex allocation, and these hamper emp irical testing of some of the basic predictions of sex allocation theo ry for plants. Nevertheless, our knowledge of the processes that shape fitness-gain curves allows us to formulate hypotheses to test predict ions of sex allocation theory. One such hypothesis is that plants adju st their gender according to size. The connection between plant size a nd gender was generally thought to be weak. Recent data, however, sugg est that size-dependent sex allocation (SDS) is a common phenomenon in hermaphrodites and other cosexual plants.