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Factors Limiting the Distribution of Cogongrass, Imperata cylindrica, and Torpedograss, Panicum repens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

John W. Wilcut
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytech. Inst. & State Univ., Tidewater Agric. Exp. Stn., P.O. Box 7219, 6321 Holland Road, Suffolk, VA 23437
Roland R. Dute
Affiliation:
Dep. Bot. and Microbial. Alabama Agric. Exp. Stn., Auburn Univ., AL 36849
Bryan Truelove
Affiliation:
Dep. Bot. and Microbial. Alabama Agric. Exp. Stn., Auburn Univ., AL 36849
Donald E. Davis
Affiliation:
Dep. Bot. and Microbial. Alabama Agric. Exp. Stn., Auburn Univ., AL 36849

Abstract

Greenhouse, growth chamber, and laboratory studies were conducted to determine anatomical and morphological characteristics and cultural practices limiting the distribution of cogongrass, torpedograss, and johnsongrass in the United States. Cogongrass did not produce axillary buds along most of the rhizome nor regenerate when apical six-node-long rhizome segments were buried deeper than 8 cm. Both torpedograss and johnsongrass produced axillary buds along the entire lengths of their rhizomes. Torpedograss shoot emergence decreased at burial depths between 8 and 16 cm. Shoot emergence from johnsongrass rhizomes was not affected by burial as deep as 16 cm. Rhizomes of all three species were tolerant of desiccation. Cogongrass grew better in soil at pH 4.7 than in soil at pH 6.7, whereas torpedograss and johnsongrass grew equally well in either pH. It is postulated that cogongrass spread is limited by lack of axillary bud formation on most of the rhizome and the inability of rhizomes to send up new shoots if buried deeper than 8 cm. These factors could account for the intolerance of cogongrass to cultivation. Torpedograss appears to spread only vegetatively due to the lack of viable seed production.

Type
Weed Biology and Ecology
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 by the Weed Science Society of America 

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