Abstract
We investigated the phytotoxicity of desert cotton (Aerva javanica) extracts on wild oat and wheat. Aqueous extracts from A. javanica roots, leaves and inflorescences collected from Jeddah and Al-Baha regions, Saudi Arabia were used. Generally, the allelopathic potential of water extracts of A. javanica collected from Jeddah were more in inhibitory to wild oat germination and seedlings growth than those from Al-Baha. In both regions, root extracts were inhibitory to wild oat followed by leaves and inflorescences extracts. All test aqueous extracts of both regions did not inhibit the wheat germination or seedlings growth.Whreas, the wild oat germination was reduced by root extracts 58.62 %, 28.62 % leaves extracts : 32.72 %, 17.72 % and inflorescences extract 28.11 %, 12.13 % by in plants samples collected from Jeddah and Al-Baha, respectively. Wild oat radical length was inhibited by root extracts 53.27 %, 32.84 % leaves 42.35 %, 9.63 % and inflorescences extracts 22.64 %, 16.75 % in case of Jeddah and Al-Baha plants, respectively. In pot culture experiment, all treatments markedly reduced the plant dry weight and soluble carbohydrates, proteins and free amino acids contents in wild oat. The differences in the allelopathic potentials of studied A. javanica extracts were related to the qualitative variations in their phytochemicals constituents. Our results showed that A. javanica extracts could be safely used to control wild oat growth in wheat fields after more detsaled research..