Allium oleraceum L. and A. vineale L. are two related bulbous geophytes with an annual storage organ that coexist in a wide range of habitats but show both partly different geographic ranges and habitat preferences in Europe. To explore whether ecological and distributional differences between species can be related to expected variation in some key life-history traits between them, research was undertaken to compare the phenology, seasonal growth, and dry-mass allocation of vegetative and reproductive plants of the species at successional gradient comprising three sites with contrasting environmental conditions (steppe, scrub, forest), where populations of the study species coexist (the Czech Republic). The results showed, in general, partly different timing of phenophases between species and different responses of species to contrasting environmental conditions. A. vineale displayed an annual life cycle similar to that observed in many Mediterranean geophytes, i.e. regularly sprouting above ground before the arrival of winter, its growth was concentrated into early and mid-spring and started to wither after a temperature increase and several short-term drought events in early summer, though its flowering was delayed until late June. A. oleraceum showed high year-on-year variation in the onset of shoot elongation above-ground; its growth was concentrated into mid- and late spring and its flowering was delayed until July. The patterns of phenology observed between the study species thus partly reflect selection under different environmental conditions of their origin. The total duration of the green above-ground period of reproductive plants in both species continued about 1.5–2 months beyond that of the vegetative ones. Over main growth period, mean relative growth rates (RGR) of A. oleraceum and A. vineale ranged from 20 to 22 and from 6 to 28 mg g⁻¹dw day⁻¹, respectively. A. vineale showed significantly higher RGR than A. oleraceum only in steppe conditions while at shaded sites the reverse pattern was found. The RGR of both vegetative and reproductive plants of A. oleraceum did not differ from one site to another. On the other hand, both vegetative and reproductive A. vineale plants showed lower RGR at shaded sites than at steppe one. Shading increased allocation into leaves in both species, caused complete abortion of developing scapes in A. vineale but only reduced reproductive allocation in A. oleraceum. A. oleraceum was able to maintain fitnessrelated traits more stably across the environments studied than A. vineale that fit well into the pattern of habitat differentiation observed between them in Central Europe. Data concerning growth of and allocation into new bulb in both species also support the hypothesis that allocating reserves for the coming year is the first priority in geophytes with an annual storage organ.
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