Paspalum notatum

The role of plants has emerged from studies with soil slurries at a site with a cover of Paspalum notatum, Lespedeza cuneata, Solidago sp., and Pinus taeda in which increased degradation of trichloroethene to CO2 took place (Walton and Anderson 1990). In addition, prairie grasses can stimulate the effective remediation of PAH-contaminated soil (Aprill and Sims 1990). 

Johnson, B.J. (1979). Bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) and common lespedeza (Lespedeza striata) control with herbicides in centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides). Weed Sci., 27 346-348. 

Male sterile plants are more susceptible than male fertile plants of Paspalum notatum Fluegge (Burton and Lefebvre, 1948). Fertilized florets of Paspalum species are resistant to C. paspali, and varieties with high seed set have less ergot (Stewart, 1958). 

Free-living bacteria in Temperate Zones fix only 2 to 3 kg N ha yr In the tropics, however, there is increasing evidence that nitrogen fixation by bacteria, particularly those growing in associative symbioses may be important. In Brazil, the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Azotobacter paspali lives in association with roots of the tropical forage plant Paspalum notatum. This association fixes 90 kg N ha yr [29]. 

Figure 1. Dendogram of cluster analysis results from phospholipid fatty acid profiles of rhizosphere and nonvegetated soils from the contaminated site. Comparisons of qualitative differences between the groups of microorganisms present in the different samples illustrated the primary clustering of nonvegetated soil samples with Lespedeza cuneata rhizosphere soil samples, and Solidago sp. rhizosphere soil with Firms taeda rhizosphere soil and Paspalum notatum rhizosphere soil samples. Secondary clustering occurred between Firms taeda soil samples and Faspalum notatum soil samples.

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