On years when fruit production was adequate, I collected 50 randomly selected mature 

 I fruits from at least 25 plants. I opened the pods, counted the intact seeds, and recorded 



whether any seeds had been destroyed by insect larvae. I also recorded the presence of 

 cattle, native ungulate, and rabbit droppings in each quadrat. 



Population growth rate was determined by the following formula: 



Population Growth = change in number of plants between year n and n+ 1 

 number of plants in year n 



Thus, population growth is negative when the population gets smaller and positive when it 



gets larger. Recruitment and death rates were determined by the following formulas: 



Recruitment Rate = number of new plants in year n + 1 

 number of plants in year n 



Death Rate = number of deaths between year n and n+ 1 

 number of plants in year n 



/ 

 Results and Discussion 



From 1986 through 1991, the number of plants in the study plots increased from 128 

 to 235. Although the number of reproductive individuals remained constant, the number of 

 non-reproductive plants nearly doubled (Table 1). Population growth rate was positive for 

 four of the five years, with large positive values coming in 1988-89 and 1990-91 (Table 1). 



