Parthenium hysterophorus Management 6
50% in the diet of the animal may kill it. The weed also causes eye irritation, diarrhea, alopecia,
pruritus, and anorexia in dog. It can also result in acute illness, when tainted meat and bittermilk
from goats, cattle, and buffaloes consume pasture mixed with this weed (Adkins & Shabbir,
2014).
Crops
Parthenium hysterophorus contains chemicals such as ambrosin, hymenin, hysterin, and
parthenin and the existence of these chemicals makes the weed to exert strong allelopathic effect
on diverse crops. This weed has been described as an inhibitor of drastic growth and germination
in numerous monocots and dicot plants. The weed negatively influences the nodulation of
legumes because of inhibition of nitrifying and nitrogen fixing bacteria activities such as
Azospirillum, Azotobacter, Actinomycetes, and Rhizobium (Tanveer, Khaliq, & Asam,
2015). This weed generates numerous pollen of approximately 624 million per plant, which is
dispersed in short distance clusters of about 600 to 800 grains, and settle on the floral and
vegetative parts hence preventing setting of fruits in crops such as maize, capsicum, beans,
brinjal, and tomato. There are countries that have experienced a decline in yield by 40% in their
agricultural products such as India because of the colonization of this weed (Ehsan & Asif,
2016).
In Australia, the weed has colonized approximately 17000km2 of major grazing region in
Queensland, resulting in economic losses of about $16.8 million yearly to the industries dealing
in pasture. This weed has also been estimated to have lowered the rain carrying capability of the
lands affected in Australia by approximately 40% in terms of cracking clay soil with yearly
rainfall between 800mm and 600mm (Mehdi, 2017).

+13062052269

info@desklib.com

The Ecology and Control of Parthenium Weed

Contribute Materials

Related Documents

Biology Assignment