Bimonthly measurements of individual tagged shoots in permanent plots and harvests of shoots in nearby plots were used to make four estimates of net annual aboveground primary production (NAAP) for Peltandra v irg in ic a . The tagging data were used to estimate production from the summation of m ortality and the Allen curve. Peak biomass and Smalley (1958) estimates were made from harvest data. The four estimates were evaluated and compared. Life history characteristics including: recruitment,

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... m ortality, turnover, and l i f e span were estimated from tagged shoot data. 2 The production estimates from the m ortality (789.44 g/m /y r ) and Allen curve (823.102g/m /y r ) methods were more than twice the peak biomass (352.64 g/m /y r ) and Smalley (375.44 g/m /y r ) method estimates. The two estimates from the tagged shoots incorporated seasonal recruitment, m ortality, and turnover. These factors are especially important to include in estimating production for Peltandra. a fleshy tid al freshwater wetland plant with high turnover. Recruitment occurred throughout the season with a peak in May. M ortality occurred on all sampling dates with a peak in August. The mean l i f e span was 53 days. Turnover was estimated from three methods NAAP/peak biomass (2.24), NAAP/mean biomass (6.83), and growing season/mean l i f e span (3 .6 ). Based on the findings of the l i f e history patterns the m ortality and Allen curve estimates represented true net production better than the harvest methods. v i i ESTIMATION OF NET AERIAL PRIMARY PRODUCTION OF PELTANDRA VIRGINICA (L .