ABSTRACT
Reproduction in plants is a costly process, which has to be supported by resources otherwise available for growth and maintenance. 14 In annuals, the resources used for reproduction are acquired during 1 year of growth, while there is no need to preserve resources for future survival, growth, and reproduction. Longer-lived polycarpic plants must have a strategy of resource utilization for reproduction which strikes a balance between these different goals, since their resource budget is never infinite. This necessitates the building up of stored reserves in some form, assuring that the plant will have sufficient resources left after reproduction for survival during inactive periods and for outgrowth in the following year. One of the characteristics of such plants is therefore a more-or-less extended juvenile period, during which the plant stays vegetative. 11 The amount of reserves stored in the mature phase and the way they are used for reproduction depend on the probability of gaining new resources in future.
