Sibling competition and phenotypic change
Growing in competition with close relatives may produce modifications in competitive traits to ameliorate competition with kin. Milla et al. study multi-trait phenotypic expression in response to competition with conspecifics of varied degrees of genealogical relatedness in an annual legume, Lupinus angustifolius. In contrast to reports on other species, they find that relatedness to competing neighbours has a negligible impact on the phenotypic expression of individuals and groups of L. angustifolius, calling into question the generality of kin recognition across plant lineages.
