ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES TO SEX FUNCTIONS IN FLOWERING PLANTS

The study of allocation of resources offers the possibility of understanding the pressures of natural selection on reproductive functions. In allocation studies, theoretical predictions are generated and the assumptions as well as the predictions can be tested in the field. Here, we review some of the theoretical models, and discuss how much biological reality can be included in them, and what factors have been left out. We also review the empirical data that have been generated as tests of this body of theory. There are many problems associated with estimating reproductive resources, and also with testing how allocation of these resources affects reproductive and other components of fitness, and we assess how important these may be in allowing empirical results to be interpreted. Finally, we discuss the relevance of resource allocation patterns to the evolution of unisexual flowers, both at the level of individual plants (monoecy, andro- and gynomonoecy) and at the population level (dioecy).