Can heterosis and inbreeding depression explain the maintenance of outcrossing in a cleistogamous perennial?

Neither inbreeding depression nor heterosis was of sufficient magnitude to explain the continued production of CH flowers given the relative energetic advantage of CL flowers previously estimated for these populations. Outbreeding depression either within or between populations makes the maintenance of chasmogamous flowers even harder to explain. More information is needed on the genetic basis of cleistogamy in order to resolve this conundrum. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.