1. It is often assumed that long‐lived woody perennials with canopy‐stored seed banks steadily accumulate seeds over time since fire. Trends in flowering and fruiting have usually been inferred from synchronic studies of sites of different post‐fire ages or counting stored seeds in apparent age classes, and mostly in obligate‐seeder species. Long‐term longitudinal studies on a broader range of species are needed to fully understand the dynamics of flower and fruit production and accumulation of viable seeds. Key questions are as follows: What is the annual trend in flowering and cone production? Is this matched by accumulation of cones and seeds? How is seed germinability related to cone age at the time of a fire?
2. We counted inflorescences and tagged cones produced annually by the resprouting shrub Banksia spinulosa in 315 plants over 13 years at one site and in 46 plants over 20 years at another. At the end of the study, we harvested all accumulated cones, burned them and assessed seed viability using germination trials.
3. We detected enormous inter‐plant variation in reproductive effort and output. 50% of inflorescences was produced by only 10%–15% of plants. There was a potential for accumulation of massive seed banks. However, (a) only 8%–10% of inflorescences became cones; (b) only 44%–50% of these were retained until harvest; (c) many retained cones suffered seed predation; and (d) viability of retained seeds declined with cone age. The result of these processes meant that the accumulated seed bank was only two to four seeds per plant, 82%–94% of the viable seeds had been produced in 6 years prior to harvest and only 12%–26% of plants contributed to this viable seed bank.
4. Synthesis : Cone and seed losses and declining seed viability in B. spinulosa mean that almost all viable seeds come from the past few years of flowering even though apparently intact cones may be retained for decades. If this is typical for resprouting serotinous shrubs, it is important to understand trends in flowering and fruit set over time because the magnitude of recruitment will depend on fecundity in the few years prior to a fire.

中文翻译：

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较长的射种间隔不能保证在有血清灌木的灌木中（Banksia spinulosa Sm。）有较大的种子库。

1. 人们通常认为，自大火以来，具有树冠存储种子库的长寿木本多年生植物会随着时间稳定地积累种子。通常通过对不同后火年龄的地点进行同步研究或对明显年龄段的储藏种子进行计数来推断开花和结果的趋势，其中多数是专性播种。需要对更广泛的物种进行长期的纵向研究，以充分了解花和果实的生产动态以及活种子的积累。关键问题如下：开花和视锥细胞的年度趋势是什么？这与球果和种子的积累相匹配吗？火灾时种子的可发芽性与锥龄如何相关？
2. 我们计算了由重生的灌木刺槐（Banksia spinulosa）每年在一个地点的315株植物中产生的花序和带有标记的视锥细胞，这些植物在13年中的一个地点在46个植物中在20年中的另一地点。在研究结束时，我们收获了所有累积的球果，将其燃烧，并使用发芽试验评估了种子的活力。
3. 我们发现生殖力和产量之间存在巨大的植物间差异。仅10％至15％的植物产生了50％的花序。有可能积累大量种子库。但是，（a）只有8％–10％的花序变成圆锥形；（b）其中只有44％–50％保留到收获；（c）许多保留的视锥细胞遭受了种子捕食；（d）保留种子的活力随锥龄下降。这些过程的结果意味着，每棵植物累积的种子库只有2到4颗种子，有活力种子的82％–94％是在收获前的6年内生产的，只有12％–26％的植物为此做出了贡献可行的种子库。
4. 合成：锥状芽孢杆菌的锥度和种子损失以及种子活力的下降均意味着几乎所有有生命力的种子都来自开花的过去几年，尽管看似完好的视锥可能保留了数十年。如果这对于发芽有色灌木是典型的，那么了解随时间变化的开花和坐果趋势就很重要，因为招募的规模将取决于大火发生前几年的繁殖力。