Effects of Temperature, Photoperiod, and Population Source on the Growth of Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica)

Abstract

Responses of the vegetative growth of cogongrass [Imperata cylindrica(L.) Beauv.] to temperature and photoperiod were studied in plants grown from stem and rhizome propagules collected from plants originating at four locations in southern Alabama and Mississippi. The plants were grown in four controlled-environment chambers with day/night temperature regimes of 23/17 C and 29/23 C, photoperiods of 12 h and 16 h, and photosynthetic photon flux densities (PPFD) of 650 μE(einsteins)m−2s−1. After 87 days, heights, leaf areas, total dry weights, rhizome numbers, and rhizome dry weights were significantly greater in plants grown at 29/23 C than at 23/17 C. Total dry weights, rhizome numbers, and rhizome dry weights were greater at the 16-h photoperiod than at 12 h. Plants grown from propagules from the McNeil, Mississippi population, which originated from an introduction from the Philippines, were significantly smaller than plants grown from propagules collected from populations thought to have originated from an introduction of cogongrass from Japan. Mathematical analysis of the growth data showed that the observed differences in dry matter production were more closely related to differences in leaf area duration than to differences in net assimilation rate.