2018 Volume 81 Issue 5 Pages 479-484
Liriope platyphylla and Ophiopogon japonicus (Nolinoideae) are evergreen perennial plants that grow on the forest floor and are widely distributed in the temperate zones of Japan. However, forest floor vegetation, including L. platyphylla and O. japonicus, has been declining in abandoned secondary forests in the Kanto region, central Japan, owing to the growth of Pleioblastus chino. The present study investigated the influence of mowing P. chino on the growth of L. platyphylla and O. japonicus. We established “mowing sites” and “control sites” to compare the amount of leaf (AL) and amount of bloom (AB) in a secondary forest that has been abandoned for over 20 years. At the mowing sites, P. chino was cut annually using sickles, every summer since 2010. The growth strategies were different between the two plants, with the AB of L. platyphylla increasing along with AL, but in O. japonicus, the AB increased without an increase in AL in one of the years. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) at the forest floor was considerably higher at the mowing sites than at the control sites from December to April. The difference in PAR during this period must affect the AL and AB of plants distributed at each plot.
