Morphological Characteristics and Chlorophyll Content of Dominant Weed Leaves After Peatland Fires in Oil Palm Plantation Areas

Abstract

The weeds are high adaptability plants after peatland fires. The response of the dominant weeds growing after the fire is an important factor in weed control efforts to increase the yield of oil palm plantations on post-fire peatlands. The present study was conducted at the Kurao oil palm plantation, Lubuk Basung, West Sumatra, Indonesia. The weeds were collected by using the Quadrat method with random placement of 20 plots in post-fire and unburnt locations. The leaf morphological characteristics were determined by the descriptive method. While the chlorophyll content of leaves was measured by using calorimetry in the spectrophotometer. A total of 25 species and 17 families of weeds were collected in the present study. The Peperomia pellucida is the most dominant species collected with an important value index of 36.41% and follows by Ageratum conyzoides with an important value index of 28.99%. In the present study, we confirmed the differences in all aspects of the morphological characteristics of Peperomia pellucida leaves between post-fire and unburnt locations. Meanwhile, in Ageratum conyzoides leaves only show differences in several aspects. Furthermore, there were differences in the chlorophyll content of Peperomia pellucida, while Ageratum conyzoides did not show any differences in chlorophyll content.