Flowering and fruiting patterns of woody species in the tropical montane evergreen forest of southern India

Abstract

Reproductive phenology in tropical forests has been potentially influenced by climatic cues, biotic interactions and phylogenetic constraints at the community level. Studies on this relationship in the tropical montane evergreen forest of south India are rather lacking. We made reproductive phonological observations on 497 individuals falling under 66 species, in 52 genera and 31 families, at weekly intervals for a period of three years from January 2002 to December 2004 consecutively. At the community level, most of the woody species had annual rhythm and showed regular seasonal reproductive cycle. Flowering and fruiting patterns were significantly related with climatic variables, seasonal patterns were significantly associated with biotic factors and further found that closely related species of flowering and fruiting showed similar in times at climatic seasonality. Therefore the study suggests that community level reproductive phenology was influenced by climatic variables, biotic interaction and evolutionary perspectives.