Weed Biology

The study of the

• Establishment

• Growth

• Reproduction

• Life cycles

of weeds

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Seed Production/Bank
• Sexual propagation: fusion of two reproductive units, the gametes,
by conjugation or fertilization
• Generally produces many seeds for the species to survive.
Implication: one weed plant causes potential problems in next year’s
crop.
• Not all seeds germinate the next season (dormancy mechanism).
Result: large reservoir of seeds (seed bank). Removal of weed seed
bank is almost impossible as seed bank is replenished continuously.
• Some species have self-compatibility but not complete autogamy or
apomixy
• Cross-pollination by unspecialized visitors or wind
• Production of some seeds in wide range of environmental conditions

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 Weed Seed
Varies greatly in shape and size; related to dissemination behaviour

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Seed Dispersal - Natural

Wind
Special adaptations of seeds:

• Small, light seeds

• Feathery pappus

• Tufts of hair

• Winged appendages
Taraxacum officinale

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 Seed Dispersal - Natural
Water
Special adaptations of seeds:

• Light, corky structures

• Air-filled bladders or pods

Eichhornia crassipes

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Seed Dispersal - Natural

Animals
Special adaptations of seeds:

• Hooks, bristles, barbs to be

caught in animal's fur

• Sticky or mucilaginous seed

coats adhere to passing
animals

• Resistant to digestion and

excreted in the animal's feces Andropogon aciculatus

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 Seed Dispersal - Natural
Forceful dehiscence

Seed pods eject or propel the

seeds a short distance from the
plant

Catharanthus roseus

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Seed Dispersal - Artificial

• Seed dispersal by machinery,
harvesting equipment, disks
and tillage equipment, trucks
and other vehicles,
contaminated crop seed

• Dissemination of perennial
weeds by vegetative
propagules by tillage equipment.

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 Seed Germination
Factors affecting seed germination
• Moisture - seeds imbibe water, enzymes are activated, stored
food is hydrolized for energy
• Temperature
a. Cool season weeds germinate at lower temperature than
warm season weeds.
b. High temperatures often cause secondary dormancy
c. Alternating temperatures are best for optimum germination
• Oxygen
• Light - not required by all seeds
• Chemical inhibitors

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Seed Dormancy
• A resting stage

• Failure to germinate when all conditions required for germination are

met

• A survival mechanism for plants

• Prevents all seeds from germinating at the same time

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 Causes of Seed Dormancy
• Physical dormancy: seed coat impermeable to water or oxygen; to
be overcome by mechanical or chemical scarification.

• Morphological dormancy: immature embryo; needs after ripening

• Physiological dormancy: require physiological changes before

germination can occur; require cold or warm stratification

• Endogenous chemical inhibitors; chemicals to be leached out for

germination to occur

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Seed Longevity
• Seed longevity varies by species; 2 - 80 years

• Weed seed production for one year can assure that weeds will be a
problem for many years to come; e.g. Amaranthus can produce
196,000 seeds per plant.

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 Vegetative Reproduction
• Without fusion of gametes
• A portion of mother plant is detached and
allowed to grow into a separate individual
capable of colonizing new areas of land.
• Food storage organs and numerous buds
capable to regenerate new plants
• Rhizomes
• Tubers Axonopus compressus
• Bulbs
• Stolons/runners/offsets
• Suckers
• Stems
• Creeping roots

Eichhornia crassipes

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Weed Ecology
The study of the interaction or relationship between a weed and its
environment (other living organisms as well as abiotic factors)

Common series of terms, from decreasing to increasing level of

complexity : individual < population < community < ecosystem < biome
< < < < biosphere (most complex)

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 Ecological Term
• Population
– a group of organisms of the same interbreeding species that
occur in a given area; e.g. Chromolaena sp in an oil palm
plantation; the Chromolaena is a population and the oil palm is
another population; plus also the Imperata cylindrica surrounding
the oil palm is another population and so on….
• Community
– Consists of all the populations within a given area
• Ecosystem
– Consists of a community plus its non-living environment
– Includes all factors associated with the environment: soil types,
rainfall, temperature, sunlight, CO2 level etc.

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– Natural ecosystem is different from agroecosystem

– Agroecosystem
1. Is dependent on human activities
2. Plant and animal diversity is reduced to make way for
specific crop
3. Crops are under artificial selection
4. Environment is controlled according to human needs
5. Is a disturbed system

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 Ecological Term – cont.
• Biome
– A group of ecosystems in a large regional unit – is often defined
by specific climate or vegetation
– E.g. tropical rain forest, grassland, desert etc…..
– Biomes are characterized by climax vegetation or mature
vegetation that can regenerate itself for long periods of time
– The plant communities that make up a biome are called climax
communities

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Succession
• The shift in plant species composition over a long period of time
• Some species may become less abundant over some time interval, or they
may even vanish from the ecosystem altogether. Similarly, over some time
interval, other species within the community may become more abundant,
or new species may invade into the community from adjacent ecosystems.
• Species that can grow the most efficiently and produce the most viable
offspring will become the most abundant organisms. As long as the
ecosystem's set of environmental conditions remains constant, those
species optimally adapted to those conditions will flourish.
• A consequence of living is the sometimes subtle and overt alteration of
one's own environment. The original environment may have been optimal
for the first species of weed, but the newly altered environment is often
optimal for some other species. Under the changed environment, the
previously dominant species may fail and another species may become
ascendant.
• The climax community represents a stable end product of the successional
sequence.
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 Weed Crop Ecosystem

Weed

Crop Humans

Natural
Environment

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Other Weed Terminology

• Colonizing species: a plant, typically r-selected (maximum reproductive
capacity but has a relatively low probability of surviving to adulthood), which
invades and colonizes a new habitat or territory.
• Feral plant: A plant that has reverted to the wild from a state of cultivation or
domestication; wild, not cultivated or domesticated.
• Agrestal: a plant (weed) growing on arable/cultivated land
• Ruderal: a plant inhabiting a disturbed site, first to colonize disturbed site
• Noxious/invasive species: any living stage of any plant of foreign origin that
can injure directly or indirectly any agricultural or natural resource; plant
undergoing a mass movement or encroachment from one area to another

Nasturtium microphyllum
Pistia stratiotes
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 Weed Persistence
• Numeral impact: Weed produces great quantity of seeds/propugules
• Seed dormancy
• Dispersal: Exposes weeds to different ecosystems; participate
successfully for existence in nature.
• Weed seeds and other propagules germinate/grow by themselves
even on compact hard soils when soil moisture and other conditions
are favourable; helps weeds to exploit every possible niche in
terrestrial and aquatic environment of earth very efficiently.
• Invasiveness: Capable of evading destruction by animals and man
because of their bitter taste, disagreeable odour, spiny nature and
mimicry.

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Weed Thresholds
• The level of weed pressure at which if a control measure is not used,
then an economic loss will occur.

• Difficult to set thresholds because:

a. Weed densities within a field vary and weed size is affected by
density
b. Should be based on economics; dependent on the cost of the
herbicide and value of the crop
c. Crop vigor and crop competitiveness that can vary among
cultivars of a crop, environmental stress (temperature extremes, soil
moisture conditions), cultural practices (row spacing, fertilization,
tillage system), etc.
d. Multiple weeds

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