Ecotypic differences in Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. related to weed-crop interference.
Abstract
See also W.A. 21, 1371. The interference between wheat and 3 edaphic ecotypes of Cynodon dactylon (naturally occurring at Chandigarh, Shiwalik and Malla) was studied by growing them in pure and mixed stands. The crop and the ecotypes of the weed showed plastic growth responses to density. The plasticity of wheat due to density stress included changes in seed wt. The ecotypes of C. dactylon showed a differential response to density stress when grown in pure stands in the Chandigarh soil, but the Malla and Shiwalik populations were more sensitive to density stress than the Chandigarh population. In mixed stands the influence of the weed on the crop was related to ecotype. Differential weed response was related to the eco-physiological make-up of the ecotype populations and it is suggested that in weed/crop studies the conventional species cannot be treated as a homogeneous entity. From summary.