Abstract:Heterogeneity is a common feature of natural habitats and connected ramets of clonal plants may share resources under heterogeneous environments. Intraclonal resources sharing of the stoloniferous herb Lysimachia christinae, growing at two sites with different altitudes (618m above sea level and 1800m above sea level) in the transitional belt between the Qing\|Zang Plateau and Sichuan basin, China, was investigated in response to the reciprocal patchiness of resources. The results indicate that biomass and number of ramets in the proximal part, the distal part and whole clonal fragments significantly increased in the resource heterogeneity treatments (Ⅲ)and(Ⅳ), compared with resource homogeneity treatments (Ⅰ) and(Ⅱ)at the site of 1800m above sea level; However, their biomass significantly increased in the resource heterogeneity treatments (Ⅲ)and(Ⅳ), compared with resource homogeneity treatments (Ⅰ) and(Ⅱ)at the site of 618m above sea level. At the two sites with different altitudes, the distal ramets growing in the treatment with low light and high nutrient allocated more biomass to the below\|ground as connected to the proximal ramets growing in high light and low nutrient than as connected to the proximal ramets growing in low light and high nutrient. At the site of 1800m above sea level, the distal ramets growing in the treatment with high light and low nutrient allocated more biomass to the above\|ground as connected to the proximal ramets growing in low light and high nutrient than as connected to the proximal ramets growing in high light and low nutrient. At the two sites with different altitudes, the proximal ramets growing in the treatment with high light and low nutrient allocated more biomass to the above\|ground as connected to the distal ramets growing in low light and high nutrient than as connected to the distal ramets growing in high light and low nutrient. At both sites, therefore, L. christina ramets showed environmentally induced specialization for uptake of locally abundant resources, and intraclonal sharing of assimilates and nutrients between the interconnected ramets increased its performance. Finally, the significant interaction of habitat heterogeneity by altitude effect indicate that the effect of intraclonal resources sharing on the performance of Lysimachia christinae may be different between two sites with different altitudes. At the site of 1800m above sea level, the effect of intraclonal resource sharing on growth performance of clonal plants was greater than that in the site of 618m above sea level. Thus, the contribution of intraclonal resources sharing to the success of clonal plant species may be different in various natural habitats.