Ecological life history of the facultative woodland biennial Arabis laevigata variety laevigata (Brassicaceae): Effects of leaf litter cover, herbivory, and substrate-type on bolting and fecundity

This paper reports the results of a study on the effects of leaf litter cover, herbivory, and substrate-type on bolting and fecundity in the facultative biennial Arabis laevigata var. laevigata, a species of rocky, deciduous woodlands in eastern North America. Probability of bolting decreased with mean cumulative amount of leaf litter cover and of rosette herbivory and was lower for plants growing on soil than for those growing on rock-moss. With rosette size factored out, both cumulative rosette herbivory and flower stalk herbivory decreased fecundity, whereas neither cumulative leaf litter cover nor substrate-type had an effect on seed production. On the basis of data in the present study and those in five previously-published papers on the life history biology of A. laevigata var. laevigata, we conclude that the taxon exhibits a stress-tolerant ruderal (SR) strategy sensu J. P. Grime's triangular model of plant strategies.