How to count fruits number per plant in a population?
More details: small annual plant usually producing one or, at most, few flowering scapes per plant.
I think I will go there to count the fruits when all the plants will be withered, the seeds will be dispersed and only the dried fruiting scapes will remain. A frequency distribution would seem adequate in order to provide a more or less reliable overview of the population.
The issue is: how to properly count this number in order to provide a true overview?
EDIT: I mean, how to randomly sample the plants in order to get a reliable idea of the situation? Many of these plants are very tiny, few are larger. I expect that most of the plants of this population would be intermediate.
Hopefully this gets at what you are asking:
A couple common methods for randomly selecting plants from a population include quadrat sampling and line transect sampling. If you get an aerial photograph of the place you wish to sample (like a screenshot from google maps). You can place a grid over it, and number the lines. Then use a random number generator (I like random.org) to select areas to sample.
For example, for quadrat samples: If you number columns and rows on your grid, you can generate a pair of coordinates, and then sample a quadrate at each point selected through the random numbers. Then you need to decide what kind of quadrat you will use, squares and circles are common, with the size of the quadrat determined by the size of your plant. A fast easy quadrat circle could be putting down a hula hoop at the point, and collecting all the data from any of your plant species within the hula hoop. With tiny plants, you might want a smaller quadrat, because getting data from a variety of random locations in the area is important. So you don’t want sampling one quadrat to be a huge job. How many quadrats you sample depends on how much time you have, but I would try for at least 10.
For line transect sampling, select random locations on the grid for your line of a set length. You can stake a string of known length (like 2 meters) and stretch it across your plot. Then collect data from all the plants on the line. Again, you will want to select a few random locations for a transect.