Colonizing Ability of Ammophila Breviligulata Through Vegetative Regeneration

(1) Plants of Ammophila breviligulata grown from caryopses in a glasshouse allocated about 30% of their biomass to below-ground parts of which 8% were rhizomes bearing dormant buds. No biomass was allocated to sexual reproduction. (2) Plant populations expanded towards a lake by an advancing front of plagiotropic rhizomes. (3) Ice-thrust against the upper beach, violent storm waves and water currents destroyed the lakeward end of the population, fragmenting rhizomes into varying lengths and creating bare areas below the farthest inland reach of waves. (4) Fragmented rhizomes were dispersed by wave action and consequently served as sources of new plants on the driftline. The rhizome fragments occurring in greatest frequency contained two to five nodes. (5) Only a few of the buds on rhizomes growing in situ developed into new shoots. Severing of the rhizome into single-node fragments increased sprouting of buds. However, 76% of the sprouted buds aborted and the shoots failed to emerge from the soil.