Statistical analysis

All recorded variables were averaged at the species level (calculated based on five individuals per species). The number of long and short shoots was compared between species using the Wilcoxon Mann–Whitney test for paired data sets, while long and short shoots were compared across species using the Wilcoxon test for independent data. The choice of nonparametric tests was justified by the nonhomoscedasticity of the data. All statistical analyses were performed in R 3.6.2 (R Core Team, ²⁰¹³).