Several studies have demonstrated the tradeoffs between depth of seed dormancy and dispersal ability for diaspore-dimorphic species. However, relatively little is known about tradeoffs between these two life history traits for a species that producesmore than two diaspore morphs. We observed that plants of Ceratocarpus arenarius (Amaranthaceae) growing in the field in Xinjiang Province of China, produce two basicarps (dispersal unit type a) near the soil surface and a gradient of aerial dispersal types (b ~f) in different canopy positions. Following the classification scheme of Barker (2005), C. arenarius is an amphi-basicarpic species. Our aim was to investigate the relationship between diaspore dormancy and dispersal in this cold desert annual.
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