Alleopathy of five ground cover plants in South China

The alleopathic effects of five ground cover plants on three vegetable seeds germination were studied. The results showed that Oxalis corymbosa had the strongest inhibitory effects on the seed germination of three vegetable seeds among the three lawn grasses, Arachis duranensis is the intermediate and Axonopus affinisi is the weakest (SE=0.87, 0.38, 0.14, respectively). This can be used to inteprete what there are less weeds in Oxalis corymbosa lawn and Arachis duranensis lawn and more weeds in Axonopus affinis lawn. Bidens pilosa had stronger inhibitory effects than what of Panicum repens. It suggested that Panicum repens is more suitable to coexist together with the other grasses or herbs than Bidens pilosa. The lawn grasses which have the strong inhibitory effects should be chosen to be used in the urban single lawn in order to decrease the appearance of the weeds, whereas be avoided to be used in the slop greening in order to keep the stability of slop vegetation. It was proposed that the alleopathy should be considered as one of the indices for selecting the ground cover plants.