Table 1.

Three‐way ANOVA of the effects of species (S), sample time (ST), cotyledon removal treatment (CT), and their interactions on seedling biomass and relative growth rate of five legume species (n = 10)

Source of variation	df	SS	MS	F	P
Seedling biomass
Species (S)	4	18.80341	4.70085	149.18	<.001
Cotyledon treatment(CT)	2	2.67126	1.33563	42.39	<.001
Sample time(ST)	1	122.1517	122.1517	3876.46	<.001
S × CT	8	2.62905	0.32863	10.43	<.001
S × ST	4	13.2086	3.30215	104.79	<.001
CT × ST	2	0.04481	0.0224	0.71	.492
S × CT × ST	8	0.28533	0.03567	1.13	.342
Relative growth rate
Species (S)	4	0.409431	0.102358	384.68	<.001
Cotyledon treatment(CT)	2	0.004421	0.00221	8.31	<.001
Sample time(ST)	1	0.074075	0.074075	278.39	<.001
S×CT	8	0.005745	0.000718	2.7	.007
S×ST	4	0.047038	0.01176	44.2	<.001
CT × ST	2	0.003541	0.001771	6.65	.002
S × CT × ST	8	0.003301	0.000413	1.55	.141