What do we know about parasitic plants and the leaf economic spectrum?

Abstract

The leaf economic spectrum (LES) quantifies correlations between key leaf traits across vascular plants and distills much of the variation in these traits to a single axis. The LES, remarkable in its near universality, has been extensively researched across a variety of contexts. However, parasitic plants relationship to the LES framework remains relatively unexplored. Because the LES is, in part, driven by physiological tradeoffs in the acquisition of carbon (C), in theory heterotrophy in parasitic plants, which supplants some of the essential functions of leaves, could lead to departures from the LES. Using global leaf trait data from the TRY database, this work assessed the overall representation of parasitic plants in the TRY database, then compared the LES suite of leaf traits in parasitic plants to their non-parasitic counterparts. Despite their unique physiology, parasitic plants did not deviate dramatically from the LES, although there were examples of differences in position on the LES and relationships among traits. Perhaps more importantly, parasitic plants are not well represented in the TRY database, making any conclusions here premature.