© 1996 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Hay-scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula (Michx.) Moore) interference with growth of northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) seedlings
Jonathan Lyon (1, 2) and William E. Sharpe (1)
1. School of Forest Resources, Environmental Resources Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park,
PA 16802, USA / 2. Department of Natural Science, Edgewood College, 855 Woodrow Street, Madison, WI 53711, USA / Received October 25, 1995
Summary
We assessed the impacts of hay-scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula (Michx.) Moore) and subsoil liming (CaO amendments) on root and shoot growth of greenhouse-grown, first-year, northern red
oak (Quercus rubra L.) seedlings. Red oak seedlings and ferns were grown in reconstructed soil profiles of four common Pennsylvanian forest
soils. When grown in the presence of hay-scented ferns, with or without subsoil liming, red oak seedlings had significantly
reduced height growth, and foliar, stem and total root biomass. Fern foliar biomass was significantly reduced when ferns were
grown with red oaks, but there was no significant difference in total belowground biomass of ferns. Belowground fern biomass
was concentrated in the upper soil profile, whereas red oak roots showed a variety of distributions. In the presence of ferns,
fine root branching in red oak was reduced in the organic horizons of three of the four soils tested. In both the presence
and absence of ferns, root branching in red oak was also significantly and negatively correlated with the concentration of
0.01 M SrCl2-extractable aluminum in the mineral horizons (r2 = 0.77). Subsoil liming generally improved root branching in red oaks. The presence of ferns significantly reduced ectomycorrhizal
infection frequency in red oak. We conclude that hay-scented fern inhibited root branching and suppressed above- and belowground
biomass accumulation of first-year northern red oak seedlings.
Keywords:
root competition, soil acidity, subsoil liming.
