2016 journal article

Environmental Influences on Growth and Reproduction of Invasive Commelina benghalensis

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRONOMY, 2016.

By: M. Riar n, D. Carley n , C. Zhang n, M. Schroeder-Moreno n , D. Jordan n, T. Webster*, T. Rufty n

TL;DR: Fertility management in highly weathered soils may strongly constrain competitiveness of C. benghalensis and shorter photoperiods will limit vegetative competitiveness later in the growing seasons of most crops, indicating that it will likely cause continual persistence problems in agricultural fields. (via Semantic Scholar)
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
2. Zero Hunger (Web of Science; OpenAlex)
13. Climate Action (Web of Science)
Source: Web Of Science
Added: August 6, 2018

Commelina benghalensis(Benghal dayflower) is a noxious weed that is invading agricultural systems in the southeastern United States. We investigated the influences of nutrition, light, and photoperiod on growth and reproductive output ofC. benghalensis. In the first experimental series, plants were grown under high or low soil nutrition combined with either full light or simulated shade. Lowered nutrition strongly inhibited vegetative growth and aboveground spathe production. Similar but smaller effects were exerted by a 50% reduction in light, simulating conditions within a developing canopy. In the second series of experiments,C. benghalensisplants were exposed to different photoperiod conditions that produced short- and long-day plants growing in similar photosynthetic periods. A short-day photoperiod decreased time to flowering by several days and led to a 40 to 60% reduction in vegetative growth, but reproduction above and below ground was unchanged. Collectively, the results indicate that (1) fertility management in highly weathered soils may strongly constrain competitiveness ofC. benghalensis; (2) shorter photoperiods will limit vegetative competitiveness later in the growing seasons of most crops; and (3) the high degree of reproductive plasticity and output possessed byC. benghalensiswill likely cause continual persistence problems in agricultural fields.