Abstract:
Because of discontinuous soil coverage, poor soil fertility and soil water scarcity, the high heterogeneity of karst habitats seriously restricts the growth and distribution of local plants. To clarify the adaptive strategies of clonal plants in karst area, two connected ramets with a single internode of
Glechoma longituba were planted in yellow calcareous soil. Then, we cut off the half of the internode and made the ramets disconnected, supplied different amounts of water to clarify the effects of the clonal integration on biomass accumulation, distribution, stomata and tissue characteristics of leaves under different treatments. The results showed that clonal integration significantly promoted the biomass accumulation of
G.longituba, and increased biomass allocation to roots and leaves. The stomatal conductance were increased and the stomatal index were decreased by clonal integration of leaves. There was less affected on leaves sponge tissue, but the palisade tissue and the ratio of palisade to spongy tissue showed that the non-clonal integration ramets were higher than the integrated ramets. The clonal integration could increase the investment of roots and leaves of
G.longituba, and further promoted clonal plant survival and adaptation in karst habitats with better leaves stomata and tissue structure.