Optimal allocation strategies of perennial plants

In this paper we propose a novel optimal allocation model for perennial plants. We consider not only favorable for photosynthesis periods, but analyze the whole life of a perennial plant. This provides more information about strategies of a plant during transitions between favorable and unfavorable seasons. One of predictions of our model is that a plant can begin re-establishment of vegetative tissues some time before the beginning of the favorable conditions, so as to come into the better environmental conditions with a certain amount of already developed vegetative tissues. In the second part of the paper we extend the model by assuming that a plant controls not only a distribution of carbohydrates, but also a size of a seed. We provide sufficient conditions under which the optimal strategy for a plant is to produce as much seeds as possible. These results can be applied, in particular, for colonizing species and plants living in open environments.