This study wascarried out to investigate the effect of extracts of leaf and roots of toughlovegrass (Eragrostis plana) on seedling growth of white clover (Trifoliumrepens), in two experiments. The first experiment was conducted as a pilottest, in which two concentrations (30 and 60%) of leaf aqueous extract weretested. In Experiment II, source (leaf/root) and concentration (5 and 10%) ofthe extracts were combined. Distilled water was used as control in both trials.Fifty seedlings at 7 days of age were placed in gerbox containers on filterpaper moistened with extracts and incubated at 25°C for 14 days. In thefirst experiment, percentage of normal seedlings decreased by 82.5% and 100%at the concentrations of 30% and 60%, respectively, which indicated the needto increase the dilution of the extracts. In the subsequent experiment, theextracts from the two sources, at 10% of concentration, reduced by 78% the percentageof normal seedling and increased the percentage of abnormal seedlings, whichreached 27%. At 5% concentration, the leaf extract was the most deleterioustreatment, resulting in greater mortality (M=27.6%) and abnormality (A=19.5%)of seedlings, compared to the root extract (M=4.8%; A=9.5%) and the control(M=2.4%; A=0.25%). The morphological changes caused by the extracts were radiclenecrosis, retention of cotyledons and absence of secondary roots. The resultssuggest that allelopathic compounds from leaves and roots of tough lovegrassdiffer in chemical nature and/or concentration.
