Clonal plants are commonly distributed in wetlands and play a vital role in maintaining regional ecosystems and their services. In the flooded wetland, the clonal plants are often fragmented by natural or human disturbance, e.g. flooding scouring or plowing. While, it is the resprouting ability of these clonal fragments that vitally controls the plant recruitment after severe disturbances.
Buds formation is essential for clonal fragments’ sprouting. Buds usually form sequentially in size and age as well as nutrient and hormonal content along clonal fragments. Theoretically, every bud can potentially initiate a new shoot to sustain population. However, the sprouting ability of buds may differ significantly due to different bud size. Larger buds represent a relatively large upfront investment in construction and maintenance, with relatively low activation costs and rapid resprouting response upon activation. Besides, the buds in shallow soil layer would be more active to sprout than those in deep soil layer. Therefore, the plant recruitment may be directly determined by the bud properties, such as bud size, and vertical distribution in soil.
What is the role of bud size and vertical distribution on bud sprouting ability? This question is attracted by researchers in Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISA). Doctor DENG Zhengmiao investigated sprouting and plant growth affected by bud sizes (large and small) and vertical distribution in soil layer (0–10cm and 10–20 cm) of the clonal emergent macrophyte Miscanthus sacchariflorus through a sprouting experiment. The content of non-structural carbohydrate in buds was also investigated at the same time.
The researcher finds that Sprouting ratio (i.e. the ratio of sprouted buds to total buds) was highest in large buds from the 0 to 10 cm soil layer, intermediate in small buds from the 0 to 10 cm layer and in large buds from the 10 to 20 cm layer, and lowest in small buds from the 10 to 20 cm layer. Both plant height and accumulated biomass correlated with bud size, except for a higher accumulated biomass in small buds from 0 to 10 cm soil layer than those between 10 and 20 cm. The content of soluble sugar was highest in the large buds from the 0 to 10 cm soil layer, and lowest in the small buds from the 10 to 20 cm layer. Starch content was not affected by either bud size or soil layer. “Therefore, the high sprouting ratio in large buds from the 0 to 10 cm soil layer may ascribe to their high content of water soluble sugar, but instead of starch.” said DENG Zhengmiao. 
This study was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2009CB421103, 2012CB417000) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31000143). Based on the study, the paper entitled “Effects of size and vertical distribution of buds on sprouting and plant growth of the clonal emergent macrophyte Miscanthus sacchariflorus (Poaceae)” has been published in the January issue of Aquatic Botany, and details could be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304377012001337