Nurse Plants vs. Nurse Objects: Effects of Woody Plants and Rocky Cavities on the Recruitment of the Pilosocereus leucocephalus Columnar Cactus

Abstract

The mechanisms of plant facilitation are different from those of object facilitation. There are seed-seedling conflicts involved in the recruitment of P. leucocephalus: nurse plants favour mainly seedling survivorship by providing a suitable microenvironment, while nurse objects mainly favour seed permanence, by protecting them from predators.