Capitalists and Proletarians (Mac Leod 1894): An Early Theory of Plant Strategies

From studies on the floral biology and the relation between self- and cross-fertilization Mac Leod (1894) proposed a distinction between "proletarians" and "capitalists". The latter, mostly perennials, usually produce relatively large insect-attracting flowers due to the presence...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oikos 1985-04, Vol.44 (2), p.364-366
Main Authors: Hermy, Martin, Stieperaere, Herman
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Biology
Capitalism
Fertilization
Flowers
Forum
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects. Techniques
Habitats
Life span
Plants
Proletariat
Terminology
Vegetation
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:From studies on the floral biology and the relation between self- and cross-fertilization Mac Leod (1894) proposed a distinction between "proletarians" and "capitalists". The latter, mostly perennials, usually produce relatively large insect-attracting flowers due to the presence of reserves of organic matter; cross-fertilization is the rule. The former are frequently devoid of insect visits, flowers are usually small and self-fertilization predominates; the available reserves (capital) are invested almost exclusively in seed production and life span is reduced to a minimum. Proletarians usually occupy pioneer (unsaturated) habitats; due to their high fecundity they survive regular disturbances. Mac Leod's (1894) proletarians and capitalists resemble in embryonic form the two extremes of evolutionary specialization recognized in the theory of r- and K-selection (MacArthur and Wilson 1967). His approach should be considered as an important historical attempt to recognize two opposite poles in the evolutionary spectrum of plants in order to understand the structure, composition and dynamics of vegetation.
ISSN:0030-1299
1600-0706
DOI:10.2307/3544714