Table 2.

Phenotypic characteristics of the reproductive ramets connected with different number grades of vegetative ramets by tillering nodes in the Leymus chinensis population (sample size, n).

Characteristics	Grade	n	Max.	Min.	Mean	SD	PPI
Height (cm)	1	25	88.0	49.6	70.3 a	10.0	0.44
	2	25	81.5	52.1	68.9 a	8.0	0.36
	3	25	88.6	57.4	69.8 a	9.0	0.35
	≥4	25	99.2	53.6	68.5 a	9.9	0.46
	Total	100	99.2	49.6	69.4	9.2	0.50
Total biomass (g)	1	25	1.036	0.392	0.659 b	0.196	0.62
	2	25	1.099	0.277	0.629 b	0.186	0.75
	3	25	1.240	0.465	0.735 ab	0.188	0.63
	≥4	25	1.775	0.456	0.803 a	0.291	0.74
	Total	100	1.775	0.277	0.707	0.227	0.84
Inflorescence biomass (g)	1	25	0.277	0.105	0.173 b	0.043	0.62
	2	25	0.300	0.070	0.169 b	0.049	0.77
	3	25	0.403	0.140	0.223 a	0.074	0.65
	≥4	25	0.590	0.108	0.252 a	0.119	0.82
	Total	100	0.590	0.070	0.204	0.084	0.88
Seed number (seeds)	1	25	44	14	27.3 b	7.3	0.68
	2	25	54	15	29.8 b	9.4	0.72
	3	25	64	21	44.1 a	11.3	0.67
	≥4	25	146	19	58.2 a	31.1	0.87
	Total	100	146	14	39.8	21.3	0.90
Seed-setting percentage	1	25	30.4	16.5	23.3 c	4.5	0.46
	2	25	37.8	17.6	28.5 b	5.9	0.53
	3	25	56.4	20.8	36.0 a	8.5	0.63
	≥4	25	69.4	24.7	42.2 a	13.9	0.64
	Total	100	69.4	16.5	32.5	11.4	0.76
Reproductive allocation (%)	1	25	36.5	18.6	26.9 c	4.4	0.49
	2	25	38.5	16.0	27.3 bc	5.5	0.58
	3	25	47.3	18.8	30.5 ab	6.8	0.60
	≥4	25	48.0	14.9	31.0 a	7.0	0.69
	Total	100	48.0	14.9	28.9	6.2	0.69
Reproductive reallocation (%)	1	25	46.7	22.0	33.9 b	7.6	0.53
	2	25	55.4	27.3	38.4 b	6.4	0.51
	3	25	63.7	32.4	45.9 a	8.0	0.49
	≥4	25	77.3	29.9	52.3 a	14.4	0.61
	Total	100	77.3	22.0	42.6	11.8	0.72

Different small letters for the same trait indicate significant differences (P < 0.05) among grades.