Allelopathic Effect of Lantana Camara on Germination and Seedling Growth Behavior of Garden Pea (Pisum sativum L.)

3 Abstract: An experiment was conducted in College of Post Graduate Studies, CAU, Barapani, Meghalaya in 2011 to recognize the inhibitory effect of aqueous extracts of Lantana camara L. (a globally recognized invasive alien weed) on garden pea (Pisum sativum L.) The test was conducted in sterilized petridishes with a photoperiod of 24 hours and an average temperature of 30°C. The effect of different concentrations of lantana leaf and seed extracts (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%) were recorded and compared with control (i.e., distilled water). Results showed that different concentrations of aqueous leaf extracts caused significant inhibitory effect on germination, root and shoot elongation rate and relative biomass ratio of receptor crops. Bioassays also indicated that the inhibitory effect was proportional to the concentrations of the extracts and higher concentration had the stronger inhibitory effect whereas the lower concentration of 10% showed stimulatory effect in some cases. The inhibitory effect was much pronounced in radical and plumule development. Hence, lantana cannot be used as a mulching material.