Abstract: By surveying Caragana aurantiaca population in the riparian terrace and floodplain of Tekes River in Yili, we explored the relationships of number, weight and size of pods with vegetative ramet height, branch number and shrub diameter, and examined the roles of pod production in population regeneration. The results showed that the abundance, length, and biomass of C. aurantiacapods in the terrace were significantly higher than those in the floodplain, whereas both the sexual reproductive allocation and single pod weight were significantly lower than those in the floodplain. The distribution characteristics of the number and biomass of pod were consistent and the values were 0-20 and 0-0.5 g respectively, which showed Lshaped distribution patterns and complied with the gamma distribution. The weight of individual pod varied from 10-30 mg, showing a lognormal distribution. The large individuals largely contributed to the variations of pod sizes in both habitats. The results of standard major axis regression analysis showed that the regression between the pod biomass and ramet heights in floodplain habitat was not significant, whereas the regression between the pod numbers, pod biomass and ramet heights, branch numbers and shrub diameters were statistically significant. Irrelevant of the pod amount or pod biomass, their slopes in the two habitats showed an order of ramet height > shrub diameter > branch number. The slopes of ramet heights and shrub diameters were statistically insignificant, but were larger than that of branch numbers. Both habitats can grow a large number of pods. The terraces tended to produce the small pods with large amount, while the floodplain tended to produce large pods with small amount. The population regeneration processes were not constrained by seed source. We propose that conservation strategies should emphasize on the increases of height, diameter, and pods, which would help accelerate the self-regeneration and self-maintenance of this shrub species.

Key words: reproductive strategy, size inequality, population regeneration, allometric growth, Caragana aurantiaca, Yili River Valley.