HERB-CHRONOLOGY AS A TOOL FOR DETERMINING THE AGE OF PERENNIAL FORBS IN TROPICAL CLIMATES

• Main Authors: Hiebert-Giesbrecht, Mickel Randolph, Novelo-Rodríguez, Candelaria, Dzib, Gabriel, Calvo-Irabien, Luz María, von Arx, Georg, Peña-Rodríguez, Luis Manuel
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) 2017
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/81239; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjb-2017-0167

Age in wild plant populations is one of the most elusive developmental parameters in plant biology. Several approaches take advantage of plant morphological traits to determine developmental stages or plant age. Annual growth rings forming in woody tissues of perennial plants are one of the traits that have been widely used to determine the age of trees (dendrochronology) and, more recently, herbaceous perennials (herb-chronology). In temperate, alpine, and arctic climates, it has been reported that seasonal climatic variations lead to the formation of annual growth rings in herbaceous perennial forbs; however, to date, no similar studies have been carried out on plants from tropical regions. We have investigated the applicability of herb-chronology on the tropical plant Pentalinon andrieuxii, a native vine of the Yucatan peninsula. Our results show that herb-chronology is a potentially useful tool in determining the age of plants growing in tropical climates. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author.