Primack et al. determined if a cost of reproduction is apparent when plants have their photosynthetic capacity reduced by experimentally removing 50% or 10% of their leaf area. Plants that had both leaves removed and produced a fruit in 1987 decreased in size in the following 2 years in comparison with other treatment groups. Plants apparently have to be put into severe physiological stress in order for a cost of reproduction to appear the following year. The cost of producing one fruit was a decline of plant size in the following year of 30 cm2, which is very similar to the authors previous experiment using a different design. An additional experiment failed to find evidence that pink lady's slipper orchids (Cypripedium acaule) increase their photosynthetic rate to compensate for the loss of leaves or the cost of maturing fruit. The authors concluded that simulated small mammal herbivory reduced the amount of stored plant carbohydrates in pink lady slipper orchids, which then limited the growth, reproduction and survival of these plants.
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