FIGURE 1.

Experimental design. The experiment had two competition treatments (without vs. with competition by growing one or nine ramets of Iris japonica in a container) crossed with five heterogeneity treatments, i.e., (i) homogeneous (all patches received moderate light and moderate water), (ii) parallel large patch (the container was divided into two large patches; one received high light and high water, and the other low light and low water), (iii) reciprocal large patch (the whole container was divided into two large patches; one patch received high light and low water, and the other low light and high water), (iv) parallel small patch (the container was divided into four small patches; two received high light and high water, and the other low light and low water) and (V) reciprocal small patch (the container was divided into four small patches; two received high light and low water, and the other low light and high water). The light and water content received by the plants in the heterogeneous treatments was the same as that in the homogeneous treatment.