Occurrence pattern and morphological polymorphism of Chinese weedy rice

Abstract

Rice, the main food crop in China, has been sporadically reported to suffer from weedy rice infestation. However, the overall occurrence and distribution pattern of Chinese weedy rice remains unclear because a systematic survey has not been conducted. In order to reveal the infestation of Chinese weedy rice, a field survey was conducted in 999 sampling sites all over the rice-growing regions in China from 2009 to 2016 using seven-scale visual scoring of the level of weed infestation. Weedy rice was found 39% occurrence incidence in a total of 387 sites. The sampling sites with 50% or higher overall weedy rice infestation index mainly radiated from Jiangsu, Heilongjiang, Ningxia and Guangdong to the whole East China, Northeast China, Northwest China and South China. A total of 45 morphological characters from 287 populations (collected simultaneously with the field survey) out of those occurred sites were observed and analyzed using multivariate analysis in common gardens with the same cultivation conditions in 2017 and 2019. Canonical correlation analysis showed that 45 morphological characters were significantly related to the latitude, mean temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation and mean diurnal range factors. The 287 weedy rice populations were divided into three morphological groups with climate-dependent geographical differentiation: strong tiller type only in Jiangsu, large leaf type in South China and Central China and large grain type mainly in North China. Weedy rice seriously infested rice fields and had a geography, climate and cultivated rice type-dependent morphological and biotype differentiation in China. It is suggested to pay attention to the harmfulness of weedy rice and adopt comprehensive control strategies.