Agricultural adaptation in the native North American weed waterhemp, Amaranthus tuberculatus (Amaranthaceae).

ABSTRACT: There is increasing interest in documenting adaptation of weedy plant species to agricultural ecosystems, beyond the evolution of herbicide resistance. Waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus) is a native plant of the Midwestern U.S. that began infesting agricultural fields in the 20th century within the central portion of its range. We hypothesized that the vegetative growth and reproductive traits of waterhemp from this heavily infested central region provide differential fitness benefits in agricultural environments. We collected seeds from across the species' native range, representing regions with varying degrees of waterhemp infestation, and planted them together in common garden soybean plots. A 2010 common garden experiment was conducted within the range of agriculturally weedy waterhem

SUBMITTER: Waselkov KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7514059 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature