To identify morphological and life history adaptations to grazing, mowing, and cultivation, authors collected seeds of the grass, Cenchrus incertus, from two populations in each of three types of sites: cemeteries (mown occasionally), pastures (grazed year-round), and orchards (plowed twice a year). Plants of the two cemetery sites on average produced the greatest number of leaves and had the greatest number of tillers per plant at each census. They were also, on average, the shortest in stature throughout the study. They tended on average to produce the greatest number of burs at each census, the greatest total number of burs, and the greatest total number of panicles per plant, but the fewest burs per panicle. Cemetery plants also had the lowest average dry weight of all plants. No consistent differences were apparent between the orchard and pasture plants. Some of the traits that distinguished the cemetery populations from the orchard and pasture populations, such as short stature, are probably direct adaptations to defoliation. Others may be secondary effects of these, or the result of allocation of trade-offs.
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