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Research Articles

Local grasses for the control of the invasive vine Mikania micrantha

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  • 1 Key Laboratory of Tropical & Subtropical Flowers and Landscape Plants of Guangdong Higher Education Institutions/College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, ZhongKai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou 510225, China, 2 Department of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZL, UK, 3 Department of Mathematical Sciences, Xi’an JiaotongLiverpool University, Suzhou 215123, China, 4 Institute of Zoology, Biocenter, Cologne University, 50674 Cologne, Germany

    *Corresponding author. E-mail: zhangbipei@zhku.edu.cn
    These authors contributed equally to this work.

Received date: 2021-07-19

  Revised date: 2021-08-28

  Accepted date: 2021-12-27

  Online published: 2022-03-03

Abstract

Mikania micrantha (Asteraceae) is an invasive vine found in tropical and southern subtropical Asian and the Pacific Islands. The current methods used to control this vine are inadequate, which warrants the development of ecologically sustainable methods. Therefore, we investigated the ability of four grass species to prevent the invasion of M. micrantha, with an ultimate goal of developing ecologically sustainable control methods for widespread application. The clumps of native grass species from China (Panicum incomtum, Pennisetum purpureum, Saccharum arundinaceum and Microstegium vagans) were established. We sowed M. micrantha seeds and transplanted the seedlings into the grass clumps to examine whether the clumps could eliminate the new M. micrantha plants. In addition, we transplanted M. micrantha into existing grass clumps to examine whether the grass clumps could prevent the re-invasion of M. micrantha. Furthermore, we grew M. micrantha with P. incomtum and P. purpureum in the field to examine whether the grasses could outcompete M. micrantha. Mikania micrantha seeds germinated hardly in the grass clumps, and all seedlings died within 3 months. It was difficult for the vine to survive in the grass clumps. Our field experiments showed that the coverage of M. micrantha was significantly lower than that of the grass species in the first year, and that the vine was outcompeted after 2 years. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to reveal that tall grasses, particularly P. incomtum and P. purpureum, have potential to serve as bio-control agents for M. micrantha.

Cite this article

Sheng Zhou, Min Wang, Linglong Yuan, Hao Chen, Linyuan Yan, Sitong Yao and Bipei Zhang . Local grasses for the control of the invasive vine Mikania micrantha[J]. Journal of Plant Ecology, 2022 , 15(4) : 844 -853 . DOI: 10.1093/jpe/rtac018

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