Potential Use of Sweet Potato (<i>Ipomoea batatas</i> (L.) Lam.) to Suppress Three Invasive Plant Species in Agroecosystems (<i>Ageratum conyzoides</i> L., <i>Bidens pilosa</i> L., and <i>Galinsoga parviflora</i> Cav.)
Shicai Shen,
Gaofeng Xu,
Diyu Li,
Guimei Jin,
Shufang Liu,
David Roy Clements,
Yanxian Yang,
Jia Rao,
Aidong Chen,
Fudou Zhang,
Xiaocheng Zhu,
Leslie A. Weston
Affiliations
Shicai Shen
Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650205, China
Gaofeng Xu
Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650205, China
Diyu Li
Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650205, China
Guimei Jin
Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650205, China
Shufang Liu
Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650205, China
David Roy Clements
Biology Department, Trinity Western University, 7600 Glover Road, Langley, BC V2Y 1Y1, Canada
Yanxian Yang
Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650205, China
Jia Rao
Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650205, China
Aidong Chen
Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650205, China
Fudou Zhang
Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650205, China
Xiaocheng Zhu
Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales 2678, Australia
Leslie A. Weston
Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales 2678, Australia
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is a logical candidate crop to suppress invasive plants, but additional information is needed to support its potential application as a suppressive ground cover. The current study utilized a de Wit replacement series incorporating five ratios of sweet potato grown in the field in combination with one of three invasive plants (Ageratum conyzoides L., Bidens pilosa L., and Galinsoga parviflora Cav.) in replicated 9 m2 plots. Stem length, total biomass, and leaf area were higher for monoculture-grown sweet potato than these parameters for any of the invasive plants grown in monoculture. In mixed culture, the plant height, branch, leaf, inflorescence, seed, and biomass of all invasive plants were suppressed by sweet potato. The relative yield parameter indicated that intraspecific competition was greater than interspecific competition for sweet potato, while the reverse was true for invasive species. The net photosynthetic rate was higher for sweet potato than for B. pilosa and G. parviflora but not A. conyzoides. Superoxide dismutase and peroxidase activities of each of the three invasive plants were reduced in mixture with sweet potato. Our results demonstrated that these three invasive plants were significantly suppressed by sweet potato competition due to the rapid growth and phenotypic plasticity of sweet potato.
