An experiment was conducted at the greenhouse of the International Rice Research Institute in 1987 to find out the character of dry matter production, the potential seed production ability and the ecological and physiological strategies to adaptation....
An experiment was conducted at the greenhouse of the International Rice Research Institute in 1987 to find out the character of dry matter production, the potential seed production ability and the ecological and physiological strategies to adaptation. For these, two rice cultivars, IR64(lowland rice) and UPLRi-5(upland rice), and seven weed species were used ; Echinochloa glabrescens Munro ex Hook. f., E. cress-galls ssp. hispidula (Retz.) Honda, E. colons (L.) Link, Monochoria vaginalis (Burin. f.), Ludwigia octovalvis Jacq.) Raven, Fimbristylis miliacea Vahl and Cyperus difformis L. Adaptation strategies of weed species varied by species. However, they had efficient seed production strategy through different ways. In general, sedge weed species (F. miliacea and C. difformis) produced great amount of seeds at the expense of seed size through greater ratooning ability and low relative dry weight for flowering. For broadleaved weed species, greater number of descendants were obtained through high plasticity and low relative dry weight for flowering (M. vaginalis) or greater growth ability through effective photosynthetic efficiency (L. octovalvis). Grass weed species, on the other hand, produced their seeds through effective growth (net assimilation rate and relative growth rate), high ratooning ability (except E. crus-galls ssp. hispidula) or low relative dry weight to maximum dry weight for flowering (E. glabrescens). The harvest indices of the weed species were considerably lower than those of rice. Fimbristylis miliacea had the greatest ratooning ability followed by C. difformis, E. colons and E. glabrescens. The greatest seed productivity was recorded by C. difformis (279, 000) and L. octovalvis (268,000) while rice produced the least number of seeds (1300-6100). Log seed weight had a negative linear relationship with log seed number (y=6.30-1.48X, $R=-0.965^{**}$). For all species plant plasticity response was not directly correlated with mortality response.