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Bitou Bush Invasion Is Facilitated By Soil Chemistry Changes Which Inhibit The Growth Of Native Plants, Emilie-Jane Ens, Kris French, John B. Bremner

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Bitou bush is a weed of national significance and has been declared as a key threatening process in NSW. We aimed to strengthen the scientific understanding of the mechanisms of invasion by investigating potential allelopathy and indirect soil chemical effects. Our study compared whether extracts of bitou bush leaves, roots and soil had a different effect on the seedling growth of a range of native species compared to comparable extracts from an acacia, the native dominant in the non-invaded system. We found that bitou bush roots released significantly higher concentrations of sesquiterpenes into the soil, compared to the acacia. Corresponding …