Variation of vegetative and reproductive traits in Cistus laurifolius: evidences of a response to contrasting habitat conditions

Results show that plants of Cistus laurifolius are able to adjust both SLA and LDMC under shaded conditions, but produce fewer seeds with reduced seed mass compared with plants under full light. We conclude that plants are able to modulate their vegetative traits maximizing the carbon gain under shaded conditions, but they are not able to offset the carbon balance deficit and therefore fail to convoy adequate resources to reproductive traits. Our results also highlight that the reproductive fitness is positively affected by conspecific plant density, but negatively affected by canopy coverage.