Results
We observed substantial phenotypic variation in the field for both frond
area and root length. Frond area varied significantly among sites
(F33,68=5.39, p<0.0001) and among microsites
within sites (F68,918=15.26, p<0.0001) with
roughly equal contributions to variation from each level (Table 1).
Similarly, root length varied significantly among sites
(F33,68=14.12, p<0.0001) and among microsites
within sites (F68,918=3.46, p<0.0001),
although the majority of this variation was at the among site level
(Table 1).
Table 1. Variation in frond area (mm2) and
root length (mm) measured in the field. Ten individual plants were
sampled in each of three microsites, for 34 sites situated broadly
across southern Quebec, Canada.