Life history of the long-lived gynodioecious cushion plant Silene acaulis (Caryophyllaceae), inferred from size-based population projection matrices.

Alpine plants often appear to have long life-spans as an adaptation to harsh and unpredictable environmental conditions, yet many lack reliable indicators of age that would make it possible to determine their true longevity. Their extended life-spans also pose problems for measuring lifetime reproductive success, a key component of breeding system evolution in species such as the gynodioecious cushion plant Silene acaulis. For a population of S. acaulis in south-central Alaska, we applied a recently derived analytical approach using size-based population projection matrices that allowed us to estimate: (1) the relationship between cushion diameter and age; and (2) lifetime reproductive success through seed production by females relative to hermaphrodites. Because of a combination of slow growth, frequent shrinkage, and extremely high adult survival, we estimate that the largest cushions in our study population exceed 300 yr in age, and some may live substantially longer, despite the seemingly inhospitable alpine environment they inhabit. Females are estimated to produce 4.4 times as many offspring via seed production over the course of their lives as do hermaphrodites, a difference that is more than sufficient to assure the persistence of females despite their inability to transmit genes through pollen. These results highlight the utility of size-based projection matrices for studying the life histories of herbaceous perennials whose life-span and lifetime reproductive success cannot be determined easily by any other means.