Sex Ratio Evolution
Jack-in-the-pulpits have size-dependent gender expression, gender diphasy. As plants increase in biomass from year to year they express non-flowering, flowering-male, and flowering-female life stages, often taking several years to reach the female stage. In many of our research sites the growth environment is stressful enough that many Jack-in-the-pulpit individuals do not get large enough to become female, resulting in extremely male biased population sex-ratios and severely limiting potential for recruitment. This line of research seeks to determine the flexibility of gender allocation rules for a gender diphasic plant and measure the responsiveness of these rules to their environment.