Effects of clonal integration on the invasive clonal plant Alternanthera philoxeroides under heterogeneous and homogeneous water availability

Many notorious invasive plants are clonal, living in heterogeneous or homogeneous habitats. To understand how clonal integration affects the performance of these plants in different habitat conditions, an 8-week greenhouse experiment was conducted: ramet pairs of A. philoxeroides were grown in two habitats, either heterogeneous or homogeneous in water availability, with the stolon connections either severed or kept intact. Under heterogeneous water availability, compared with ramets in homogeneous habitats, clonal integration significantly promoted the growth and photosynthetic performance of water-stressed apical ramets, whereas it only increased the photosynthetic performance but did not affect the growth of water-stressed basal ramets. Moreover, clonal integration markedly increased the root/shoot ratios of ramets grown in habitats with high water supply but decreased it under low water availability. Under homogeneous water availability, stolon connection (clonal integration) did not influence the growth, photosynthetic performance and biomass allocation of water-stressed ramets, but it significantly promoted the growth of well-watered ramets in both apical and basal sections. These findings deepen our understanding of the bidirectional and differentiated (mainly acropetal) clonal integration of A. philoxeroides, suggesting that the invasive plant A. philoxeroides can benefit from clonal integration in both heterogeneous and homogeneous habitats.