Evolutionary loss of thermal acclimation accompanied by periodic monocarpic mass flowering in Strobilanthes flexicaulis

While life history, physiology and molecular phylogeny in plants have been widely studied, understanding how physiology changes with the evolution of life history change remains largely unknown. In two closely related understory Strobilanthes plants, the molecular phylogeny has previously shown that the monocarpic 6-year masting S. flexicaulis have evolved from a polycarpic perennial, represented by the basal clade S. tashiroi. The polycarpic S. tashiroi exhibited seasonal thermal acclimation with increased leaf respiratory and photosynthetic metabolism in winter, whereas the monocarpic S. flexicaulis showed no thermal acclimation. The monocarpic S. flexicaulis required rapid height growth after germination under high intraspecific competition, and the respiration and N allocation were biased toward nonphotosynthetic tissues. By contrast, in the long-lived polycarpic S. tashiroi, these allocations were biased toward photosynthetic tissues. The life-history differences between the monocarpic S. flexicaulis and the polycarpic S. tashiroi are represented by the “height growth” and “assimilation” paradigms, respectively, which are controlled by different patterns of respiration and nitrogen regulation in leaves. The obtained data indicate that the monocarpic S. flexicaulis with the evolutionary loss of thermal acclimation may exhibit increased vulnerability to global warming.