Why Is Allelopathy Important?

Allelopathy is a natural ecological phenomenon. ... Allelochemicals can stimulate or inhibit plant germination and growth, and permit the development of crops with low phytotoxic residue amounts in water and soil, thus facilitating wastewater treatment and recycling (Macias et al., 2003; Zeng et al., 2008).

What are the benefits of allelopathy?

In the phenomenon of plant allelopathy, allelopathic plants create adverse conditions to other neighboring plants by reducing their seed germination and seedling growth. The allelopathic plants are very effective in weed killing and are sometimes known as "nature's weed killers".

Why studying allelopathy is important?

Allelopathy is characteristic of certain plants, bacteria, coral, fungi, rather than algae. Allelopathic interactions are an important factor in determining species distribution and abundance within plant communities and are also thought to be important for the success of many invasive plants.