Pak. J. Bot., 39(2): 319-327, 2007.

CLIMATIC VARIATION AND GROWTH OF HOLY THISTLE

(SILYBUM MARIANUM GAERTN.)
KHAN BAHADAR MARWAT AND MUHAMMAD AZIM KHAN

Department of Weed Science,

NWFP Agricultural University Peshawar, 25130, Pakistan
E-mail: ahmadzaipk@[Link]

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in weed suppression through manipulation of crop density. To

test this hypothesis as to how growth of Holy thistle (Silybum marianum) is affected by
environmental conditions, experiment was conducted in RCBD with split plot arrangements by
sowing four seed rates of wheat (100, 120, 140 and 160 kg ha-1) in main plots and seven S.
marianum densities (0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 m-2) in sub-plots. Increasing seed rate of wheat greatly
suppressed the growth of S. marianum during year 1 and had no effect on S. marianum growth in
year 2 due to higher rainfall and low temperature which favoured the growth of S. marianum. With
the increasing density of either species, the seed production plant-1 of S. marianum decreased but
the magnitude of seed reduction was dependent on seed rate, S. marianum density and year effect.
Thus seed rate and weed density did not give accurate prediction to estimate the yield losses and
competitiveness of weed. Hence other factors like rainfall and temperature should also be
considered while developing a model for crop/weed competition. Optimum seed rate (120 kg ha-1)
of wheat could contribute to a strategy to reduce yield losses and to prevent this weed from seed
production in long-term weed management. However, this approach can be used as a part of
integrated weed management.

Introduction

Climate plays an important role in manipulating the crop-weed competition. Usually

the crop and its associated weeds require similar environmental conditions for growth and
development. However, when the environmental conditions are altered it may favour few
weed species. Thus the crop yield losses shall increases due to interspecific competition
in a changing climate. Although increased seed rate of crop plays an important role in
suppressing weeds and thus weed seed production is reduced greatly, however, this
approach can prove successful if consistent cultural practices are adopted in a particular
area for long term weed management. Increased competitive ability of crops has been
also associated with early emergence, rapid leaf expansion forming a dense canopy,
increased plant height, early vigorous root growth, and increased root size. However, the
importance of climatic conditions can not be ignored in studying crop-weed competition
studies. Bailey et al., (2003) hypothesized that environmental variation caused
differences in measured responses between 1997 and 1998. Higher rainfall enabled
Galium aparine to escape suppression by wheat (Seavers & Wright, 1999). Large
seasonal differences in wheat yield loss from densities of Avena spp. across 2 years due
to a function of seasonal factors such as rainfall has been reported by Murphy et al.,
(2002). Although increased seed rate is considered as a tool of weed management
technique but it needs thorough study as higher seed rate alone cannot suppress weeds.
320 KHAN BAHADAR MARWAT & MUHAMMAD AZIM KHAN

Spring wheat cultivars that were taller and tillered more profusely caused the greatest
reductions in seed production of the simulated weeds, like, wild oat and wild mustard
(Hucl, 1998). The establishment of a crop with a more uniform and dense plant
distribution can increase its ability to suppress weeds. This is due to more rapid canopy
closure that better shades weeds and help better root distribution improving access to soil
nutrients and water. Increase in spring wheat seed rate from 50 to 300 kg ha-1 reduced
Erodium cicutarium L., biomass by 53 to 95% and increased wheat yield by 56 to 498%.
Additionally, E. cicutarium in the soil seedbank for future weed infestations was reduced
by 79%. The greatest weed suppression may occur when higher seed rates were
combined with planting of large wheat seed (Anon., 2005). Although most studies do
show decreased weed biomass at higher crop densities (Doll, 1997; Hakansson, 1997),
the prediction of ever increasing weed suppression at increasing crop density is not
usually observed in some of the crop density studies (Teich et al., 1993; Khan et al.,
2005). Climatic conditions can change the plant growth in a variety of ways. Temperature
determines the potential length of the growing and grazing seasons, and generally has a
strong effect on the timing of developmental processes and on rates of expansion of plant
leaves. The latter, in turn affects the time at which a crop canopy can begin to intercept
solar radiation and thus the efficiency with which solar radiation is used to make plant
biomass (Monteith, 1981).
Thus ecological studies of every weed species is necessary to develop weed
management program for infested area. If the type of weed which is likely to cause
problem is known in advance, this can greatly assist in the choice of the appropriate
control method. The sensitivity of marginal farmers of marginal lands to climatic change
may be especially great as temperature or moisture required to avoid crop failure or a
critical crop shortfall tends to increase not linearly but quasi-exponentially. Marginal
areas are thus commonly characterized by a very steep "risk surface", with the result that
any changes in average warmth or aridity, or in their variability, would have a marked
effect on the level of risk in agriculture.
In order to address the importance of S. marianum as a potential major weed of
wheat in NWFP and elsewhere, these experiments were designed to decipher the impact
of climatic variation (mainly temperature and rainfall) on S. marianum and its
competitiveness with wheat.

Materials and Methods

Field site description: Field experiments were conducted at Agricultural Research Farm,
NWFP Agricultural University Peshawar, Pakistan for two crop seasons i.e. 2003-04 and
2004-05 on the same site. Peshawar lies between 710 – 27/ and 720 – 47/ east longitude
and 330 – 40/ and 340 – 31/ north latitude. It is located at 317 m height above sea level.
The experimental site has mean soil pH of 7.47 with 22.79, 55.69 and 21.52 % clay, silt
and sand, respectively. Soil is silty clay loam in texture, calcareous in nature and alkaline
in reaction. Meteorological data (Table 1) was recorded during both the crop seasons that
varied greatly between the years. The organic matter content of soil was low with poor
supply of available phosphorus and total nitrogen.
CLIMATIC VARIATION AND GROWTH OF SILYBUM MARIANUM GAERTN. 321

Table 1. Weather data (temperature and precipitation) of experimental site.

Max. Min. Precipitation
Year Month
(mean) (mean) (mm)
2003-04 December 21.2 6.0 9.5
January 18.0 4.2 55.1
February 23.1 6.3 39.4
March 28.6 10.7 00.0
April 31.0 16.5 36.7
Mean 24.8 8.74 Total 140.7
2004-05 December 20.7 6.3 25.8
January 16.9 3.3 75.9
February 16.4 5.1 97.4
March 22.1 10.8 108.5
April 29.3 12.54 9.3
Mean 21.1 7.6 Total 316.9
Source: Weather Station, NWFP Agricultural University Peshawar, Pakistan.

Field operation: Before sowing of wheat and S. marianum, seedbed was prepared by
ploughing the field twice followed by harrowing. All other cultural practices were kept
uniform for all the treatments. Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers in the form of urea and
diammonium phosphate (DAP) were applied @ 135:50 NP. Half N and full dose of P
was applied at sowing and remaining N was applied with second irrigation. The
experiments were conducted using a Randomized Complete Block (RCB) design with
split-plot arrangements, having four replications. The main plots consisted of four seed
rates of wheat i.e. 100, 120, 140 and 160 kg ha-1, while sub-plots had seven densities of S.
marianum i.e., 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 plants m-2. The size of a main plot was 52.5 m2
while the size of each sub-plot was 5 x 1.5 m2 having 5 wheat rows, spaced 0.30 m apart.
Wheat was sown with the help of hand hoe whereas seeds of S. marianum were planted
using dibbler the same day. To avoid the risk of germination failure, three seeds of S.
marianum were seeded instead of a single seed and then the population adjusted through
thinning and or transplantation accordingly. All other weeds were removed manually
throughout the crop season on weekly basis.

Measurement and statistics: Random samples of 10 S. marianum plants from each sub-
plot were selected before maturity to record plant height. The leaves of each plant were
cut with scissors and put in plastic bags. Leaf area was measured using leaf area machine
and mean of the samples determined the leaf area plant-1. To record the fresh biomass, 10
plants were selected in each treatment at milk stage of wheat and weighed. The data
recorded was converted into t ha-1. Flowers of 10 S. marianum plants in each
experimental unit were cut at maturity and seeds plant-1 were determined.

Statistics: Since years’ effect was significant, thus yearly analysis was carried out
accordingly. For main effects, statistical analyses were performed using ANOVA
procedure and then the means were separated using LSD test (Steel & Torrie, 1980) using
MSTATC software. As the treatments were spaced at equal intervals, therefore regression
analyses were performed using polynomials to determine the trends and thus regression
lines were fitted accordingly.
322 KHAN BAHADAR MARWAT & MUHAMMAD AZIM KHAN

Results and Discussion

Height of S. marianum (cm): Height of S. marianum was significantly (P<0.01)

decreased by increasing seed rate of wheat during year 1 (2003-04) and was not affected
during year 2 (2004-05). This difference could be attributed to higher rainfall and low
temperature during year 2 (Table 1). Increasing S. marianum density during year 1 did
not affect the plant height itself due to severe intraspecific competition but during year 2,
with the increasing S. marianum density, its height also increased probably due to
competition for light (Table 2). Interaction of the wheat seed rates and S. marianum
density showed that during year 1, the plant height of S. marianum was different at
different seed rates and overall trend was quadratic with increasing S. marianum density
but during year 2, the plant height was independent of seed rate and linearly increased
with the increase in S. marianum density (Fig. 1a&b).
S. marianum is inherently taller than wheat if sown alone but in our experiments it
was noted that plant height of wheat and S. marianum were approximately the same
during year 1. While in year 2, the S. marianum was much taller than wheat and thus all
the yield components of wheat were greatly affected. Similarly the seed rate greatly
decreased the plant height of wheat during year 1 (data not given) but was not affected in
year 2. These contrasting results could be attributed to the fact that higher rainfall and
low temperature in year 2 favoured the growth of S. marianum and thus attained more
plant height. Thus we can speculate that decreasing the irrigation intervals or excessive
rainfall can make the S. marianum more competitive against wheat. Plant height of S.
marianum during favourbale environmental conditions increased with increasing its
density, irrespective of the seed rate for the obvious reason of intraspecific competition.
Tessema & Tanner (1997) added that plant height appear to be the factors most closely
associated with weed competitive ability with wheat.

Table 2. Means of seed rates and S. marianum densities during 2003-04 and 2004-05.
Plant height Leaf area (cm2) Fresh biomass Seed production
(cm) plant-1 (t ha-1) plant-1
2003-04 2004-05 2003-04 2004-05 2003-04 2004-05 2003-04 2004-05
Seed rate
(Kg ha-1)
100 85.29 A 97.96 227.4 A 262.6 A 4.79 A 4.92 AB 245.1 A 247.9 A
120 77.43 B 97.75 205.5 B 258.8 A 4.41 AB 5.20 A 174.1 B 263.6 A
140 73.18 B 98.71 198.4 B 240.8 A 3.91 BC 5.22 A 91.61 C 185.1 B
160 64.93 C 98.18 151.4 C 189.5 B 3.40 C 4.38 B 24.79 D 146.1 B
LSD Values 6.06 NS 16.62 22.17 0.624 0.61 36.3 55.11
[Link]
Density m-2
0 0.00 B 0.00 D 0.00 D 0.00 E 0.00 B 0.00 E 0.00 C 0.00 E
3 86.81 A 110.2 C 242.0 A 301.3 A 4.59 A 5.12 D 174.7 A 281.9 A
6 85.69 A 109.0 C 242.1 A 289.9 AB 4.72 A 5.68 BC 175.8 A 270.8 AB
9 87.44 A 110.5 C 234.8 AB 279.0 BC 4.55 A 5.50 CD 168.7 A 261.1 ABC
12 86.38 A 116.5 B 224.1 BC 270.8 CD 4.82 A 5.98 AB 155.4 AB 236.3 BCD
15 89.44 A 120.1 AB 214.4 C 263.4 CD 5.10 A 6.20 A 136.4 B 221.7 CD
18 90.69 A 120.8 A 212.2 C 261.2 D 5.11 A 6.04 AB 126.3 B 203.1 D
LSD values 5.52 3.78 14.40 17.37 0.685 0.4616 29.19 40.73
Interaction
SR x WD * NS ** ** * NS ** *
Values followed by different letters are significantly different at p≤ 0.01 level according to LSD test.
SR = Seed rate, WD = Weed (S. marianum) density, NS = Non significant,
* = Significant at p< 0.05, ** = Significant at p≤ 0.001
CLIMATIC VARIATION AND GROWTH OF SILYBUM MARIANUM GAERTN. 323

Leaf area of S. marianum (cm2): In both the years (2003-04 and 2004-05), the leaf area
of S. marianum plant-1 decreased with increasing the density of either species due to inter
and intraspecific competition (Table 2). Medium seed rates (120 and 140 kg ha-1) gave
statistically similar value of leaf area during year 1 while during year 2, all seed rates
gave statistically similar value of leaf area except the highest seed rate (160 kg ha-1),
where lowest values of leaf area plant-1 was recorded. During year 1, the increasing S.
marianum density upto 9 plants m-2 had no effect on leaf area but increasing S. marianum
density beyond 9 plants m-2 decreased the leaf area significantly. Similarly during year 2,
leaf area plant-1 decreased with increasing S. marianum density. In both the years, leaf
area plant-1 of S. marianum was decreased linearly in all seed rates of wheat except the
highest seed rate (160 kg ha-1) where the response of leaf area to S. marianum density
was quadratic (Fig. 2a&b). With the increasing wheat seed rate, the leaf area of S.
marianum decreased in interspecific competition. But at high seed rate of wheat the
intraspecific competition among wheat plants increased and as a result S. marianum got
advantage of it.
As the wheat seed rate increased, the S. marianum leaf area plant-1 decreased
significantly. Similarly increasing S. marianum density also decreased its leaf area due to
intra-specific competition. However, it was noted that the older leaves of S. marianum
dried soon when its canopy shaded them. Maximum leaf area per plant-1 was recorded in
lowest seed rate (100 kg ha-1) and minimum in highest seed rate (160 kg ha-1). The data
showed that greater leaf area plant-1 was noted in year 2 as compared to year 1 (Table 3).
This difference in leaf area was due to higher rainfall and low temperature during year 2
(316 mm and 21 0C) as compared to year 1 (140mm and 24oC). Thus S. marianum with
greater leaf area and plant height can be considered as more competitive with the crop
plants because higher vegetative growth of a weed in a crop is inversely proportional to
yield. Empirical models of crop yield loss were derived based on relative green area to
different growing seasons (Storkey 2004). Damage to crop can be calculated based on the
weed density or relative leaf area of the weed (Knezevic et al., (1995). Few plants in the
same treatment obtained surprising growth and thus they out competed the rest of the
plants in the same treatment. This behaviour of the plants could be described by the
statement of Wettberg & Weiner (2004) that many plants can change their locations
through plastic growth, determined by the climate. These studies are supportive of the
results reported here.

Fresh biomass of S. marianum (t ha-1): Fresh biomass of S. marianum decreased

(P<0.01) with increasing seed rate during year 1 while during year 2 the seed rate at 100,
120 and 140 kg ha-1 gave statistically similar values and significantly decreased at highest
seed rate (160 kg ha-1). With the increase in S. marianum density there was no significant
effect of density on fresh biomass during year 1 and significantly increased with the
increase in S. marianum density during year 2 (Table 2). However, this increase in fresh
biomass was upto 12 S. marianum plants m-2 and beyond this density there was no
significant increase due to intraspecific competition. Regression analysis showed that
increasing seed rate of wheat suppressed the growth of S. marianum in both the years.
However there was linear increase in fresh biomass of S. marianum at lowest seed rate
during year 1 and at seed rate of 100 and 140 kg ha-1 during year 2 (Fig. 3a&b). In all
other seed rates, the response of fresh biomass was quadratic due to impact of
intraspecific competition.
324 KHAN BAHADAR MARWAT & MUHAMMAD AZIM KHAN

a
Fig. 1. Plant height of S. marianum at various seed rates ( =100, × = 120, ▲=140, □ = 160 kg ha-1) during
a) 2003-04 and b) 2004-05.

a
Fig. 2. Leaf area plant-1 of S. marianum at various seed rates ( =100, × = 120, ▲=140, □=160 kg ha-1) during
a) 2003-04 and b) 2004-05.

Fig. 3. Fresh biomass of S. marianum at various seed rates ( =100, × = 120, ▲=140, □ = 160 kg ha-1) during
a) 2003-04 and b) 2004-05.
CLIMATIC VARIATION AND GROWTH OF SILYBUM MARIANUM GAERTN. 325

Fig. 4. Seed production of S. marianum at various seed rates ( =100, × = 120, ▲=140, □ = 160 kg ha-1) during
a) 2003-04 and b) 2004-05.

Green area of a species can be used as an indicator of its competitiveness. Our results
showed that in year 1 with the increasing seed rate of wheat, S. marianum was suppressed
and ultimately decreased its fresh biomass whereas in year 2 this suppressing ability of
wheat was noted only at highest seeding rate. Similar trend of decrease in dry weight was
observed with increasing seed rate (Gaffer et al., (1997). Thus the higher rainfall and low
temperature (Table 1) enabled S. marianum to escape suppression by wheat and obtained
more vegetative growth and hence greater fresh biomass. In the season with high rainfall
Galium aparine was not suppressed by wheat (Seavers & Wright, 1999). Similarly in
year 1, S. marianum density had no significant effect on fresh biomass but in year 2, the
fresh biomass increased with increasing S. marianum density and maximum biomass was
noted at density of 12 m-2. In year 1, the low density accumulated more biomass plant-1
and thus compensated the biomass. While in year 2 the environmental conditions were
favourable and thus plenty of moisture did not restrict the growth S. marianum. Hence it
is concluded from the results that in year 1 there was potential in S. marianum to achieve
more growth but their growth was restricted by intraspecific competition. According to
Stoimenova et al., (1994) during years in favourable climatic conditions for crop, the
competitive ability of soybeans increased and Echinochloa crus-galli accumulated less
biomass and the main factors influencing the competitive relations were quantity of
accumulated fresh and dry biomass of the weed and temperature. Trend lines depict that
at lowest seed rate, the fresh biomass increased linearly and in quadratic fashion in all
other seed rates in year 1. In year 2, fresh biomass increased linearly at seed rate of 100
and 140 kg ha-1 and quadratically at other seed rates. However, in both years, at highest
seed rate the fresh biomass was not significantly increased with the increasing density of
S. marianum. These results are similar to the reports of Wilson et al., (1995) who
indicated the suppressing ability of wheat at highest seed rate and reported that weed
biomass declined, and its maximum level reached earlier, with increasing crop density.
Khan & Marwat (2006) reported that tillers in wheat were differently affected across the
years.

Seed production of S. marianum plant-1: Seed production of S. marianum plant-1 was

significantly (p<0.01) decreased with the increase in seed rate of wheat (Table 2). During
326 KHAN BAHADAR MARWAT & MUHAMMAD AZIM KHAN

year 1 (2003-04) the seed rate of wheat significantly decreased the S. marianum seed
production. However, lower seed rate (100 and 120 kg ha-1) and higher seed rates (140
and 160 kg ha-1) were statistically at par with each other during year 2 (2004-05).
Similarly during year 1, the seed production plant-1 was at par either at S. marianum
density ranging from 3-12 plants m-2 while increasing density beyond this, significantly
decreased seed production plant-1. While during year 2, the seed production continued to
decrease up to S. marianum density of 18 m-2. Trend lines show that the effect of seed
rates and S. marianum density on the seed production plant-1 of S. marianum was in line
in both the years i.e. with the increase in S. marianum density, the seed production plant-1
decreased linearly (Fig. 4a&b) at all seed rates. The regression coefficient (R2) value
ranged from 64-93 % during year 1 and 74-90% during year 2.
Increasing seed rates significantly (p<0.01) decreased seeds plant-1 during year 1
while during year 2 lower seed rates (100 and 120 kg ha-1) and higher seed rate (140 and
160 kg ha-1) gave statistically similar values for seed plant-1. It was noted that seed
production plant-1 was much greater during year 2 as compared to year 1. This increase
may be attributed to the higher rainfall and low temperature in year 2 (Table 1). These
results show that seed rate of wheat can contribute significantly in decreasing the weed
seeds and hence poor seed bank. Wilson et al., (1995) also reported that weed seed
production was related to weed biomass; the progressive lowering of crop density
increased seed production. Similarly, Singh et al., (2000) reported that high seed rate
recorded the lowest weed dry weight. In another study dry weight and seed production of
Chenopodium album were suppressed by increasing planting density or by the presence
of crop (Grundy et al., 2004). However the seed rate alone can not prevent the weeds
from seed production and other factors like rainfall, temperature and other favourable
envoronmental conditions that favour a particular weed should also be considered.
Because of differences in environmental conditions, velvetleaf achieved maximum height
later in 1998 than in 1997 however, velvetleaf seed production was higher in 1998 than in
1997 regardless of velvetleaf density.
Thus S. marianum being taller than other weeds can be considered as harmful weed
as it can shade the crop plants and other pasture species and become dominant. It would
suggest that higher seed rates play an important role in suppressing weeds however this
approach will be weather dependent. The present studies suggests that lowering the seed
production of weeds is the best long term management of S. marianum. Due to prolific
seed production, this weed can become a hindrance in the way of higher yields of wheat.
Therefore this weed needs to be studied in a range of environmental conditions.

Acknowledgements

This study is a part of Ph.D. dissertation research and was partially funded by NWFP
Agricultural University Peshawar-25130 Pakistan, which is gratefully acknowledged.

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(Received for publication 10 February 2007)