The relationship between genetic load and I c became non-significant ( χ 2 = 3.2, p = 0.07), while the negative relationship between flowering start and competitive index remained highly significant ( χ 2 = 12.5, p < 0.001).
Flowering timespan and flowering start were the two phenology-related traits affected by the number of competitors ( table 1 ); FT decreased as competition intensity increased ( t = −3.6, p < 0.001; electronic supplementary material, figure S3d) and FS did not depend on competitor number for Asian ( t = −0.92, p = 0.36) and was marginally significant for Middle Eastern ( t = 1.815, p = 0.07) and significant for European accessions ( t = 4.1, p < 0.001), meaning that flowering starts later under increased competition.