Fruit polymorphism in ephemeral species of Namaqualand: IV. Growth analyses of plants cultivated from the dimorphic diaspores

Growth analyses were conducted on two polymorphic annual species, Dimorphotheca sinuata and Arctotis fastuosa of Namaqualand, Republic of South Africa. Plants cultivated from disc diaspores of D. sinuata produced significantly more inflorescences, produced bigger mature plants and allocated more biomass to reproduction than plants cultivated from ray diaspores. Plants of both D. sinuata and A. fastuosa growing on less disturbed sites in the field allocated more biomass to reproduction than plants growing on more disturbed sites. Reproductive allocation of A. fastuosa increased with a decrease in plant size, whereas reproductive allocation was not affected by plant size in the case of D. sinuata.