Growth Stimulation of Adjacent Plants by Lupine and Alder on Recent Glacier Deposits in Southeastern Alaska
Lawrence DB and Hulbert L. 1950. Growth Stimulation of Adjacent Plants by Lupine and Alder on Recent Glacier Deposits in Southeastern Alaska. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 31(3):58
Lupinus species and Alnus crispa subsp. sinuata are the first plants in the succession on the cold raw mineral deposits exposed through glacier recession, which look healthy and grow rapidly. Both of these plants also have a marked stimulating effect on other flowering plants growing close to them. Lupine causes associated willows, grasses, and fireweed to bloom and to grow several times as fast as plants growing separately. Young cottonwood trees surrounded by alders grow about three times as fast as those living away- from alders. The root nodules which occur even on the young seedling alders are suspected of bringing this about by the symbiotic fixation of atmospheric nitrogen in a way similar to that long recognized for lupine and other legumes. A field experiment has been sent up in Glacier Bay National Monument to find out exactly how alder causes this stimulation.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Lawrence, Donald; Hulbert, Lloyd
- Units
- GLBA
- Keywords
- Botany, Deposit, Growth, Vegetation