Seed Germination Ecology of Chenopodium album and Chenopodium murale

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Chenopodium album L. and Chenopodium murale L. species of weeds are significant menaces in field crops and are reported to have evolved resistance against numerous herbicides across the world. Studying their germination biology can help in devising non-chemical management strategies. We investigated the germination behaviour of these two weed species under variable temperatures, light conditions, salinity, water stress, and pH. The results from this study reveal that these two weed species can germinate over a wide range of environmental conditions, which might help them to spread and establish in new ecologies. ABSTRACT: Chenopodium album L. and Chenopodium murale L. are two principal weed species, causing substantial damage to numerous winter crops across the globe. For sustainable and resource-efficient management strategies, it is important to understand weeds’ germination behaviour under diverse conditions. For the germination investigations, seeds of both species were incubated for 15 days under different temperatures (10–30 °C), salinity (0–260 mM NaCl), osmotic stress (0–1 MPa), pH (4–10), and heating magnitudes (50–200 °C). The results indicate that the germination rates of C. album and C. murale were 54–95% and 63–97%, respectively, under a temperature range of 10 to 30 °C. The salinity levels for a 50% reduction in the maximum germination (GR(50)) for C. album and C. murale were 139.9 and 146.3 mM NaCl, respectively. Regarding osmotic stress levels, the GR(50) values for C. album and C. murale were 0.44 and 0.43 MPa, respectively. The two species showed >95% germination with exposure to an initial temperature of 75 °C for 5 min; however, seeds exposed to 100 °C and higher temperatures did not show any germination. Furthermore, a drastic reduction in germination was observed when the pH was less than 6.0 and greater than 8.0. The study generated information on the germination biology of two major weed species under diverse ecological scenarios, which may be useful in developing efficient weed management tactics for similar species in future agri-food systems.