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Phenological patterns of Ficus in relation to other forest trees in southern India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Aviva Patel
Aviva Patel*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Miami, P.O. Box 249118, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA
*
1Ecosystem Health, Blackwood Hall, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, CanadaN1G 2W1. Fax: (519)763–1686, Email: avivapat@uoguelph.ca.
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Abstract

The importance of figs as keystone resources depends partly on their year-round fruiting pattern. However, most non-equatorial fig species show seasonality in reproductive phenology. If fig and other species' fruiting peaks coincide, the importance of figs as key resources during lean fruiting periods may be reduced. Fig and other forest tree phenology was studied in a deciduous and an evergreen site in the Western Ghats, southern India, from January 1991 to May 1992. In the deciduous site, most non-fig flowering and leaf flushing occurred during the two dry seasons, while most fruiting occurred during the dry and early wet seasons. In the evergreen site, all non-fig tree phenological stages – flowering, fruiting and leaf flushing – were concentrated during the two dry seasons annually (dry and post-monsoon). Individual fig trees produced crops one to three times annually, at different times of the year for different trees. Fig community fruiting peaks in the evergreen site coincided with fruiting peaks of the other forest trees, but in the deciduous site occurred slightly offset from non-fig fruiting peaks. The role of figs as key resources is likely to differ among forests, and to depend on factors such as diversity of fruiting pattern among fig species, fig tree density and territoriality of frugivores.

Keywords

figfloweringfruitingfrugivorykeystone resourceMoraceaephenologytropics
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 13 , Issue 5 , September 1997 , pp. 681 - 695
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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