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Timing and extent of tissue removal affect reproduction characteristics of an invasive species Heracleum mantegazzianum

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Abstract

Response of the invasive species Heracleum mantegazzianum to experimental removal of tissues was studied in the Czech Republic. The study aimed at determining (i) how efficiently plants respond, in terms of quantity and quality of produced fruit, to the removal of different amounts of generative and/or vegetative tissues; and (ii) whether regeneration ability depends on the time of treatment. Total number of fruits and their mean weight were reduced by removal of leaves, but germination percentage and rate of germination did not differ from control. More vigorous individuals compensated for the loss of tissues to a higher degree, and the advantage of being larger increased with severity of the treatment. Of 40 plants with umbels completely removed, 18 (45.0%) regenerated and produced on average 103.4 ± 220.1 (mean ± SD) fruits. Total fruit numbers and total fruit weight of regenerating plants significantly differed neither among treatments nor from the control, but some treatments resulted in poorer germination compared to the control. Umbels removed from plants at the beginning of fruit development and left at the locality produced 18.6% of fruit numbers of control plants, and 24% of these seeds germinated. Control by removing umbels from plants must ensure that they are collected and destroyed. From the management viewpoint, there is a trade-off between later umbel removal, resulting in more efficient reduction in fecundity but necessity to handle more developed fruits, and early treatment, leading to a high regeneration, that produces seed of sufficient quantity and very little affected in terms of quality.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jim Drake for valuable comments on the manuscript, especially the idea of metapopulation effect of light seeds, and for improving our English. The study was supported by the project “Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) a pernicious invasive weed: developing a sustainable strategy for alien invasive plant management in Europe”, funded within the “Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme” (grant no. EVK2-CT-2001-00128) of the European Union 5th Framework Programme, by institutional long-term research plans no. AV0Z60050516 from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and no. 0021620828 from Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic, and by the grant of the Biodiversity Research Center no. LC06073.

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  1. Lukáš Krinke

    Present address: Museum of Local History, Zádušní 1841, CZ-272 80, Kladno, Czech Republic

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-252 43, Průhonice, Czech Republic

    Petr Pyšek, Vojtěch Jarošík, Irena Perglová, Jan Pergl & Lenka Moravcová

  2. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, CZ-128 01, Praha 2, Czech Republic

    Petr Pyšek & Vojtěch Jarošík

  3. Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, Charles University, Benátská 2, CZ-128 01, Praha 2, Czech Republic

    Lukáš Krinke

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  1. Petr Pyšek
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Correspondence to Petr Pyšek.

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Pyšek, P., Krinke, L., Jarošík, V. et al. Timing and extent of tissue removal affect reproduction characteristics of an invasive species Heracleum mantegazzianum . Biol Invasions 9, 335–351 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-006-9038-0

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