Latency of Seedlings in some Grasses

Abstract

EXPERIMENTS at this Station have shown that when seeds of Lolium italicum are sown in the field together with those of certain other grasses (notably Festuca pratensis, Phleum pratense, and Poa trivialis), the early establishment of the latter may be considerably diminished as compared with that occurring in the absence of the rye-grass. Some months after sowing, an increase in the establishment of the same grasses is often shown. In seeking an explanation of this behaviour, a peculiar property of grass seedlings has been revealed.