Sains Malaysiana 44(3)(2015): 347–354

Maternal Mowing Effect on Seed Traits of an Invasive Weed, Erigeron annuus in Farmland

(Kesan Memotong Maternal ke atas Ciri Biji bagi Rumpai Invasif, Erigeron annuus di Ladang Ternakan)

XIAO-HUI YONG, JIANG-HUA LIU, ZHEN LI, SHU-FENG DU, ZHUO-WEN ZHANG, XUE-FENG MENG, XIAO-JING WU & YONG-JIAN WANG*

College of Horticulture & Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University,

Wuhan 430070, China

Received: 25 February 2014/Accepted: 30 September 2014

ABSTRACT

The effect of maternal mowing on seed traits of an invasive weed, Erigeron annuus, in farmland was discussed by comparing mowing plants with intact (no-mowing) plants. The maternal mowing effect resulted in the decrease of seed mass, achene size, pappus length and germination percentage and the increase of variation in achene size, pappus length, dispersal distance and germination non-uniformity. To some extent, the individuals suffered mowing might accelerate the environmental adaptation through the increase of these variations. Our study indicated the mean of mowing in farmland will restrain the growth and reproduction of weed E. annuus. However, it also increases the diversity of seeds through a more unequal provision to seeds that shares the risk and increases fitness to a wider range of heterogeneity of farmland condition.

Keywords: Achene size; Erigeron annuus; maternal mowing; seed traits

ABSTRAK

Kesan memotong maternal ke atas sifat biji bagi rumpai invasif, Erigeron annuus, di ladang ternakan telah dibincangkan dengan membandingkan tumbuhan yang dipotong dengan tumbuhan utuh (tidak dipotong). Kesan memotong maternal telah menyebabkan penurunan jisim biji, saiz aken, panjang papus, peratus percambahan serta peningkatan dalam variasi saiz aken, panjang papus, jarak penyebaran dan ketidak-seragaman percambahan. Sedikit sebanyak, individu yang mengalami kesan potongan mungkin cepat menyesuaikan diri dengan alam sekitar melalui peningkatan variasi ini. Kajian ini menunjukkan cara memotong di ladang ternakan akan menghalang pertumbuhan dan pembiakan rumpai E. annuus. Walau bagaimanapun, ia juga meningkatkan kepelbagaian biji melalui pembahagian tidak sama rata pada biji yang berkongsi risiko dan ia juga meningkatkan kecergasan julat untuk keheterogenan yang lebih luas dalam keadaan ladang ternakan.

Kata kunci: Erigeron annuus; memotong maternal; saiz aken; sifat biji

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*Corresponding author; email: wangyj@mail.hzau.edu.cn