Allelopathic effect of aqueous extracts of Cleome viscosa L on seed germination and seedling growth of Maize (Zea mays. L)
Ghafoor Unnisa, Aurosha Fayaz, *S. Maqbool Ahmed, Mohammad Faizan
Botany Section, School of Sciences, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad-500032, (India) *Correspondence: maqboolbotany@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Cleome viscosa is one of the most common weeds grown in Maize fields. It is used to determine the allelopathic potential on the growth and developmental changes on crop plants. The present study was conducted to evaluate the allelopathic effects of C. viscosa on the seed germination and seedling growth of Maize plants. Aqueous extracts of root and shoot of C. viscosa with the concentration of 10, 30 & 50% were applied on the Maize seeds in petri dishes; however plants treated with distilled water included as control. Seed germination, length of hypocotyl and root number was measured on 3rd, and 5th day respectively. Results from the present study demonstrated that the seed germination, length of hypocotyl and root number of Maize was significantly decreased with the increase of extract concentrations. Therefore, it is concluded from the above study that, both the root and shoot extracts of C. viscosa showed inhibitory effect on the germination growth percentage of Maize seeds over control from lower to higher concentration (10, 30 & 50%). The root number and shoot length also decreased with the increase in the concentrations of root and shoot extract. Inhibitory effects of aqueous extracts may be due to the presence of allelochemicals in C. viscosa. However, in-depth underlying mechanism of the inhibitory effect needs to be further explored.