Late successional plants are largely unaffected by plants at earlier stages of succession because they are not in direct competition for resources, a factor called

Tolerance.

Explanation:

Ecological succession may be defined as the change of an species, its structure and change in the ecological community with time. Two main types of succession are primary succession and secondary succession.

The earlier plant stage does not affect the late successional plant stages. These two plant stages does not have direct competition, they are showing the tolerance model. The different species tolerate the different successional stages of each other.