TY  - JOUR
A1  - Weber, Ewald
T1  - Strong regeneration ability from rhizome fragments in two invasive clonal plants (Solidago canadensis and S. gigantea)
JF  - Biological invasions : unique international journal uniting scientists in the broad field of biological invasions
N2  - The two rhizomatous perennials Solidago canadensis and S. gigantea belong to the most widespread alien plants in Europe. Anecdotal observations suggest that they disperse also by rhizome fragments. For testing their resprouting ability, rhizome fragments of different sizes from both species were buried at four different soil depths (0, 5, 10 and 20 cm, respectively) in a common garden. Rhizome fragments of S. canadensis ranged 3-6 cm in length, those of S. gigantea 5-20 cm in length. Resprouting plants were harvested after 3 months and growth related traits measured to assess their vitality. Resprouting rate in S. gigantea was far higher than in S. canadensis (85 and 19%, respectively). In S. gigantea, fragments of all sizes resprouted from all soil depths whereas none rhizome of S. canadensis emerged from 20 cm burial depth. In S. gigantea, size related traits showed significant interactions between fragment size and burial depth, but not relative shoot growth rate. At all burial depths, vitality of plants emerging from small rhizomes was lower than plants emerging from large rhizomes. Effects of rhizome size became stronger with increasing burial depth. The results show that both species are able to resprout from buried rhizome fragments, and that succesful regeneration is more likely to occur in S. gigantea. Managing these species should avoid any activities promoting rhizome fragmentation and dispersal of fragments.
KW  - Clonal growth
KW  - Dispersal
KW  - Establishment
KW  - Goldenrod
KW  - Invasive plant species
KW  - Vegetative regeneration
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-011-9977-y
SN  - 1387-3547
VL  - 13
IS  - 12
SP  - 2947
EP  - 2955
PB  - Springer
CY  - Dordrecht
ER  -