No evidence for home-site advantage in the seedling establishment of the invasive Lupinus polyphyllus in Finland

: Ramula S

Publisher: CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING, NRC RESEARCH PRESS

: 2016

: Botany

: BOTANY

: 94

: 7

: 573

: 577

: 5

: 1916-2790

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjb-2015-0259

The establishment success of an invasive species in its introduced range may be promoted by local adaptation and (or) phenotypic plasticity. Here, I tested for local adapation in the seedling establishment of the perennial herb Lupinus polyphyllus (Lindl.) in Finland, where the species has been invasive since the late 1800s. Reciprocal seed-sowing experiments conducted in multiple populations revealed that seedling establishment increased with the increasing genetic variation of the source population. However, there was no evidence for local adaptation when assessed in terms of seedling establishment; that is, establishment was not higher in the home population than in more distant populations located either in the same or in a different geographic region. Overall, these results suggest that the seedling establishment of L. polyphyllus is robust to changes in environmental conditions, and that genetic variation together with phenotypic plasticity-rather than local adaptation-may have contributed to its invasion success in this part of its introduced range.