Interference and management of parthenium: The world's most important invasive weed

ESTIMATING YIELD LOSSES AND ECONOMIC THRESHOLD LEVEL OF Parthenium hysterophorus IN FORAGE SORGHUM

“…Parthenium is an annual or short-lived ephemeral plant which normally germinates in spring and early summer, remains in vegetative phase for 4-8 weeks and reaches the reproductive phase in 12-16 weeks (Adkins et al, 1996;Tanveer et al, 2015). In Pakistan, parthenium is spreading throughout the country and considered an exotic or invasive weed species (Shabbir and Bajwa, 2007).…”

Vermicomposting transforms allelopathic parthenium into a benign organic fertilizer

“…Parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus) is one of the most aggressively colonizing and ecologically harmful of terrestrial weeds (Adkins and Shabbir, 2014;Tanveer et al, 2015;Aggarwal, 2016 Safdar et al, 2016). It has invaded most countries in the tropical and sub-tropical world, causing massive losses in agricultural production.…”

“…Parthenium's colonization is fostered by the presence in it of sesquiterpene lactones, and phenolics e especially parthenin, coronopilin, hysterin, ambrosin, ferulic acid and anicic acidewhich are toxic to other species of plants, and impart strong allelopathy to the weed (Reinhardt et al, 2009;Kaur et al, 2014;Kumar, 2015). A parthenium invasion soon eliminates most other species of plants, thereby destroying the habitat of animals depending on those plants (Tanveer et al, 2015). To make matters worse parthenium plays host to a number of crop pests (Sharman et al, 2009), and human disease vectors (Akter and Zuberi, 2009;Nguyen et al, 2010;Knox et al, 2011;Nyasembe et al, 2015).…”

Transformation of the pernicious and toxic weed parthenium into an organic fertilizer by vermicomposting

“…Parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus) is a flowering, erect herb with several branches, which grows aggressively in a wide range of habitats and has colonized vast tracts of land across the tropical and sub-tropical world [1]. It is distinguished by its large seed bank, rapid seed germination, fast growth rate and highly viable seed production capacity.…”