Reduced pests, improved grain quality and greater total income: benefits of intercropping rice with Pontederia cordata.

BACKGROUND: Intercropping, which is growing two or more different crops in the same field simultaneously, is an effective traditional agricultural practice for productivity, resource utilization, and pest control. However, study on intercropping in paddy fields is limited. So in this study, field experiments of 2 years/four seasons (early and late seasons in 2016 and 2017) were conducted to examine the effects of rice-Pontederia cordata intercropping on rice plant growth, pest control, yield, income, and grain quality. RESULTS: We found rice-P. cordata intercropping significantly decreased the occurrence of rice diseases and pests, with a 22.0-45.9% reduction in sheath blight and a 33.8-34.4% reduction in leaf folders. The mean land equivalent ratio (LER) (1.09) result indicates that intercropping rice and P. cordata generated positive yield effects. In addition, due to the economic profit from the replacement stripe of P. cordata in the rice paddy field, intercropping rice with P. cordata could greatly enhance farmer income. The average total income of rice intercropped with P. cordata was 2.5-fold higher than that of rice monoculture. Furthermore, intercropping significantly improved grain quality compared with the rice monoculture. It significantly increased the milled rice rate and whole milled rice rate by 11.2% and 12.8%, respectively, but decreased the chalky rice rate by 30.9-39.8% and chalkiness degree by 32.2%. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that rice-P. cordata intercropping provides an environmentally effective way to control rice diseases and pests, results in higher overall productivity and total income, and improves grain quality. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Pontederia cordata, an ornamental aquatic macrophyte with great potential in phytoremediation of heavy-metal-contaminated wetlands.

Pontederia cordata can tolerate heavy metal toxicity and possesses great potential for phytoremediation of heavy-metal-contaminated wetlands, yet how it copes with heavy metal stress has still not been determined. Hydroponic experiments were used to assess the effects of various levels of Cd2+ on the photosynthesis and activity of redox-regulatory systems in the plant leaves, and we also sought to elucidate the tolerance mechanism of the plant to Cd2+ by investigating Cd2+ enrichment characteristics and chemical forms. The plant can manage a low cadmium concentration (≤0.04 mM) with relatively stable biomass and photosynthetic performance. Cd2+ at the highest concentration (0.44 mM) decreased superoxide dismutase and peroxidase activities by 37.17% and 93.29%, respectively. Similar trends were demonstrated in the contents of ascorbic acid, carotenoids, lutein, glutathione, and non-protein thiol, as well as phytochelation in the leaves, exacerbating membrane peroxidation despite the significantly increased catalase activity observed. Moreover, the highest Cd2+ concentration disturbed the biosynthesis of chlorophyll precursors in the leaves, reduced chlorophyll a and b, as well as total chlorophyll contents by 60.47%, 67.47%, and 68.12%, respectively, which inhibited photosynthesis, leading to a decline in biomass. Compared with maximum quantum efficiency (Fv/Fm) and the potential activity (Fv/Fo) of photosystem II, the performance index for energy conservation from photons absorbed by PSII to the reduction of intersystem electron acceptors (PIabs), and of PSI end acceptors (PItotal), can indicate Cd2+ toxicity to the photosynthetic apparatus in the leaves. 49.95%-76.90% of the Cd2+ was sequestered in the plant roots, restraining translocation from roots to shoots, which is considered a tolerance mechanism, probably resulting from disturbed transpiration in leaves and increased Cd2+ content with low activity. Pontederia cordata is a candidate plant for phytoremediation of heavy-metal -contaminated wetlands.

Architectural constraints, male fertility variation and biased floral morph ratios in tristylous populations.

Tristyly is a genetic polymorphism in which populations are comprised of three floral morphs (mating types) differing reciprocally in sex-organ height. Intermorph (disassortative) mating governed by a trimorphic incompatibility system should result in 1:1:1 morph ratios at equilibrium, but both deterministic and stochastic processes can cause skewed morph ratios in tristylous populations. Here, we investigate mechanisms causing morph-ratio bias in Pontederia parviflora, an emergent aquatic native to tropical America. We compared reproductive traits among morphs and surveyed 71 populations to determine patterns of morph-ratio bias. We then used simulation models of morph-frequency dynamics to test the hypothesis that morph-specific differences in pollen production and their influence on male fertility can explain patterns of morph-ratio bias. Ninety-seven percent of populations that we sampled were tristylous, but with a significant excess of the short-styled morph and a deficiency of the long-styled morph. Atypically for a tristylous species, mid-level anthers of the short-styled morph produced over twice as much pollen compared with the corresponding anthers of the long-styled morph. Our computer models incorporating this difference in male fertility resulted in morph ratios not significantly different from the average frequencies from our survey suggesting that the short-styled morph is more successful than the long-styled morph in siring ovules of the mid-styled morph. We propose that the difference in male fertility between morphs may be a non-adaptive consequence of a developmental constraint caused by the architecture of tristyly in Pontederiaceae.

Effects of planting densities on water quality improvements and Pontederia cordata's physiology.

Various planting densities (5, 10, or 20 plants per tank) of Pontederia cordata were water-cultivated in purifying tanks to treat polluted water. Seasonal effects of the planting densities on the water quality improvement and the morphology and physiology of the plant were analyzed. Results indicated that planting densities affected the nitrogen and phosphorus removal of water, and the morphology and physiology of plants, including activity of peroxidise and catalase, content of chlorophyll and soluble protein (SP), the length of root, stem and leaf, tiller number and root density. When planting density increased from 10 to 20 plants per tank, the morphology and physiology of plants, and the nitrogen and phosphorus removal by plants improved slowly, but caused a tiller number decline in individual plants. This variation was significant in autumn, and associated with seasonal variations of plant physiology. During autumn, there were 26 tillers in each plant with 10 plants per tank, compared to 14 tillers per plant with 20 plants per tank. Increase in the nitrogen and phosphorus contents of the plants for 5-10 plants per tank was 5.41 and 0.79 g kg(-1), compared to 1.17 and 0.12 g kg(-1) for 10-20 plants per tank, respectively.

Treatment of dairy waste by using water hyacinth.

In the present study treatment of wastewater from a large dairy by using water hyacinth was studied in laboratory experiments. Effects of depth of the system, variations in area coverage, prior settling and of daily renewal of the plants was also studied on the efficacy of hyacinth in treating the dairy waste. Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) was found to grow exceptionally well in the waste (BOD 840.0 mg/L) and brought down the level of BOD from 840.0 to 121.0 mg/L; COD from 1,160.0 to 164.0 mg/L, total suspended solids from 359.0 mg/L to 245.0 mg/L, TDS from 848.0 mg/L to 352.0 mg/L, total nitrogen from 26.6 mg/L to 8.9 mg/L in 4 days. There was very little reduction, however in calcium, sodium and potassium concentration. Results of different experiments showed that systems with shallow depth were more efficient in removing dissolved solids, suspended solids, BOD, COD, nitrogen and phosphorus. Daily renewal of the plants led to slightly better reduction in suspended and dissolved solids, BOD, COD and nitrogen. Water hyacinth coverage was found to have a direct bearing on the treatment efficiency. Pretreatment (settling) of the waste was also found to be favourable as dissolved oxygen content increased rapidly in the experimental sets with pretreatment. Efficiency of removal of various parameters was also good in these sets. From the study it can be concluded that dairy waste can be effectively treated by water hyacinth. Consideration of above parameters and incorporating them in design factors can greatly increase the efficiency of the system.