Allelopathy is the main chemical means in the invasion process of exotic plants and one of the key factors in grassland degradation. In this experiment, we investigated the effects of ethyl acetate phase extract (EAE), n-butanol phase extract (BE) and aqueous phase extract (AE) from the aboveground (stems and leaves) and roots of
Ligularia sagitta
on seed germination and seedling growth of four
Gramineae
forages (
Poa pratensis
L.
Festuca ovina
L.
Elymus nutans
Griseb.
Agropyron cristatum
(L.) Gaertn.) in their sympatric domains and one
Legosuminae
forage (
Medicago sativa
L.). The chemical components in each phase extract of
L. sagitta
were determined with UHPLC-MS/MS non-targeted metabolomics, and the differential compounds were screened using Orthogonal Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA). Within a set concentration range, EAE significantly inhibited seed germination and seedling growth of four
Gramineae
forages. BE and AE acted mainly in the seedling growth stage and did not significantly inhibit forage seed germination.
P. pratensis
was most sensitive to
L. sagitta
extracts; at 2.0 mg/mL of EAE from roots, germination energy and germination rate of
P. pratensis
seeds were 0.
L. sagitta
extracts inhibited the growth of
M. sativa
seedlings and did not inhibit its seed germination. A total of 904 compounds were identified with UHPLC-MS/MS, among which 31, 64, 81 and 66 metabolites displayed different accumulation patterns in the four comparison groups (R.EAE vs. R.BE, R.EAE vs. R.AE, SL.EAE vs. SL.BE, SL.EAE vs. SL.AE), respectively. In particular, 9 compounds were found to be common up-regulated differential metabolites in the four comparison groups and were enriched in EAE. Additionally, N,N-dimethylaniline, Caffeic acid, 4-Hydroxybenzoic acid, 4-Hydroxybenzaldehyde and cis-9-Octadecenoic acid as potential allelochemicals in
L. sagitta
. The results of this study support efforts at finding alternative control plants for the restoration of poisonous grass-type degraded grasslands.