Flora 202 (2007) 371–382 Fruiting phenology in a tropical dry evergreen forest on the Coromandel coast of India in relation to plant life-forms, physiognomic groups, dispersal modes, and climatic constraints M. Arthur Selwyn, N. Parthasarathy à Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry 605 014, India Received 28 April 2006; accepted 21 August 2006 Abstract The fruiting phenology of 22 woody plant species belonging to 19 families was studied with respect to life-forms, physiognomic groups and dispersal modes, for 1 year at monthly intervals, in a tropical dry evergreen forest at Oorani (12111 0 N, 79157 0 E) on the Coromandel coast of India. At the community level, bimodal fruiting pattern prevailed, with a major peak in the dry season and a minor one in the early rainy season. An annual fruiting pattern was observed in many species and among the studied species fruiting lasted for 2–9 months. There was no significant difference in the frequency of species at three fruiting stages across the life-form categories and many species of upper and lower canopy trees and lianas were in the ripe fruiting phase during the late dry season. Plant physiognomic groups displayed distinct seasonality in fruiting pattern. The fruit maturation period was much longer for the wet season fruiting brevi- deciduous species than evergreen and deciduous species that fruited during the dry season. The variation in timing of fruiting behaviour among zoochorous species demonstrated less seasonality and zoochorous fruits were available throughout the year. Fruiting in anemochorous species peaked during the driest months and dryness favoured the dissemination of seeds. The fruiting patterns observed in the studied tropical dry evergreen forest across various plant traits were comparable with patterns recorded in other tropical seasonal forests. r 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Keywords: Climate; Dispersal modes; Fruiting phenology; Life-forms; Physiognomic groups; Tropical dry evergreen forest Introduction In tropical forests, the phenology of plant commu- nities has been studied at different levels of organiza- tions. At each level, species display spatial and temporal variation in reproductive events, and constraints and selective forces, which cause these variations, are also diverse. Many times phenological responses are not driven by any single factor, probably the result of a compromise between a range of selective forces (Fenner, 1998), and mechanisms behind these actions are still ambiguous. A number of constraints on fruiting phenology have been reported. They include abiotic factors such as precipitation, temperature, number of dry months and photoperiod (Frankie et al., 1974; Leigh and Windsor, 1982; Opler et al., 1976; Prasad and Hegde, 1986; Reich and Borchert, 1984; Van Schaik et al., 1993; Wright and Van Schaik, 1994); seed dispersers and predators (Ashton et al., 1988; Foster, 1982; ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.de/flora 0367-2530/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.flora.2007.04.001 à Corresponding author. E-mail address: parthapu@yahoo.com (N. Parthasarathy).