Abstract
As a devastating holoparasitic weed, Orobanche aegyptiaca Persoon. (Egyptian broomrape) causes serious damage to agricultural production and threatens economic development, which has raised widespread concern. The present study was conducted to determine whether lilies have the potential to be used as ‘trap crops’ for controlling O. aegyptiaca Persoon. In the experiments, the ability of three popular lily cultivars (Lilium Oriental hybrids ‘Sorbonne’, Lilium LA (Longiflorum hybrids x Asiatic hybrids) hybrids ‘Ceb Dazzle’, and Lilium Longiflorum hybrids (L. formosanum x L. longiflorum) ‘L. formolongo’) to induce O. aegyptiaca Persoon. seed germination was assessed. Parts of the three lily cultivars, including the rhizosphere soil and underground and above-ground organs, all induced “suicidal germination” of parasitic O. aegyptiaca Persoon. seed at four growth stages. Specifically, Sorbonne and Ceb Dazzle behaved with similar allelopathy, and the bulb, scale leaf and aerial stem exhibited stronger allelopathic effects on O. aegyptiaca Pers. germination compared to other organs. Aqueous L. formolongo leaf extracts may contain more stable, effective stimulants given that they induced the highest germination rate at 76.7% even though the extracts were serially diluted. We speculate that these organs may be advantageous in further isolating and purifying economical active substances that can be substitutes for GR24. These results indicate that lilies have the potential to be used as a trap crops or can be processed into green herbicide formulations that can be applied in agriculture production to rapidly deplete the seed bank of O. aegyptiaca Persoon. parasitic weeds in soil.
Highlights
Orobanche spp., a type of widely distributed holoparasitic weed found throughout the Mediterranean region, Western Asia and Eastern Europe, causes enormous economic loss by parasitizing primarily on Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Leguminosae, Compositae, Cruciferae Apiaceae and Gramineae plants for nutrients and water [1,2,3]
Germination rates of O. aegyptiaca Pers. seeds increased up to 90% when treated with the positive control GR24, while germination did not occur in seeds treated with distilled water and methanol, indicating that the O. aegyptiaca Pers. seeds were viable
Rhizosphere soil extracts from three different lily cultivars induced parasitic O. aegyptiaca Pers. seed germination at all four growth stages, showing the strongest allelopathic effects at the flowering stage (Fig 7)
Summary
Orobanche spp. (broomrapes), a type of widely distributed holoparasitic weed found throughout the Mediterranean region, Western Asia and Eastern Europe, causes enormous economic loss by parasitizing primarily on Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Leguminosae, Compositae, Cruciferae Apiaceae and Gramineae plants for nutrients and water [1,2,3]. Of the diverse Orobanch spp. species, O. aegyptiaca Persoon., O. cernua Loefl., O. crenata Forsk., O. Cultivars and Orobanche aegyptiaca minor Sm. and O. ramosa L. have a wide parasitizing spectrum and are capable of doing more harm than any of the other Orobanche spp. species [3, 4]. Controlling parasitic weeds with trap crops may be a biologically promising and practical method in farming. Trap crops are non-host species whose roots exude chemical stimulants required for parasite germination without haustoria formation [3, 8]. Many efforts have been implemented to screen various trap crops for use against parasitic weeds. Wheat, maize, rice, cotton, soybean and rape have been identified as trap crops in controlling Orobanche spp. Wheat, maize, rice, cotton, soybean and rape have been identified as trap crops in controlling Orobanche spp. [9,10,11,12,13,14]
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