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Potentilla matsumurae has a wide distribution from wind-blown fellfields to snowbeds in alpine regions of Japan. The environmental factors influencing seedling establishment differ between the fellfield and snowbed habitats plants growing in each habitat may therefore have different germination strategies. Using a reciprocal sowing experiment, patterns of seedling emergence and survivorship were examined in both habitat types in the Taisetsu Mountains, Japan. Seeds derived from a fellfield population germinated earlier than did those derived from a snowbed population at both habitats, and the germination of fellfield seeds continued throughout the growing season. The timing of seedling emergence greatly affected subsequent survival at the fellfield. Seedlings that emerged in the first half of the growing season had low survivorship during the first year because of frost and drought damage, but the remaining seedlings had high survivorship during the winter: seedlings that emerged in the latter half of the growing season showed the opposite trend. At the snowbed, seedling survival was high throughout the growing season. Germination experiments in the laboratory highlighted a difference in the sensitivity of seeds from the fellfield and snowbed populations to fluctuating, temperatures. These results indicate that intraspecific variation in emergence and survivorship may occur over a small scale in in alpine environment. (C) 2003 Annals of Botany Company.