Bitter-tasting Fescue Takes Over More Quickly With Help Of Plant-eating Bugs, Animals
12th Sep 2005, 14:46 GMT
Research in this week's issue of PNAS reveals how some non-native fescue grass gets a leg up over competing native plants: it's passed over by plant-eating insects and animals after a symbiotic fungus laces its leaves with toxic alkaloids. In a 54-month study, scientists showed that fungus-infected 'tall fescue' tended to choke out uninfected fescue and native plant species. Tall fescue took over test plots much more quickly when herbivores weren't discouraged from foraging.