Summary
The environmental factors influencing a steep morph-ratio cline in a maritime population of Lotus corniculatus have been studied in detail. The frequency distribution of cyanogenic plants in the cline has remained stable for 16 years, plants very near the sea being predominantly acyanogenic, whereas 200 m inland 70 per cent of the plants are cyanogenic. Analyses of the biotic, edaphic and microclimatic environment of this population showed that an exposure gradient (wind and windborne salt) and the distribution of known selective herbivores were the only factors which were consistently associated with the cline.
On the basis of these results and the hypothesis that cyanogenesis is a protection against herbivores it was predicted that other sites along the coast, which showed similar environmental variation, should also show a similar distribution of selective herbivores and of cyanogenic plants. It was confirmed that at sites exposed to wind and windborne salt the selective herbivores were rare and the frequency of cyanogenic plants was low. At sites which were less exposed, the numbers of selective herbivores and the frequency of cyanogenic plants were both higher.
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Ellis, W., Keymer, R. & Jones, D. On the polymorphism of cyanogenesis in Lotus corniculatus L.. Heredity 39, 45–65 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1977.41
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1977.41
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