Two laboratoy experiments were carried out at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, USA, in 1990, to determine the effects of hydroxamic acid benzoxazolinone (BOA), the herbicide atrazine, and a mixture there of on duckweed growth and its chlorophyll content. BOA at 0.5 mM concentration was applied in combination with atrazine at 0.001 and 0.005 mM in a 2.5 ml cell tissue cluster dish containing three fronds of duckweed in nutrient solution. Single applications of BOA and atrazine inhibited duckweed frond number, frond dry weight, and its chlorophyll content. Atrazine showed stronger inbibition effect than BOA. The combination BOA and atrazine at 0.001 mM was antagonistic where the inhibition induced by the herbicide was counteracted. Unlike atrazine at 0.00I mM, BOA added to atrazine at 0,005 mM did not counteract the inhibitio caused by the herbicide.
Hydroxamic acid; allelopathy; duckweed; Lemna minor