Effect of Algastatic Agents on Marchantia

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Abstract
When M. polymorpha is grown on various inorganic solns. with glass cloth as a substrate, the green algae[long dash]Chlamydo-monas and Stichococcus subtilis[long dash]and such blue-green algae as Phormidium autumnale, Chroococcus rufescens, Nostoc muscorum, and Plectonema nostocorum, compete with the liverwort for nutrients and space. Various copper salts and MnS04 inhibit the growth of exptl. plants, or kill them, even in concs. as low as 1 ppm. and often are ineffective in the control of algae. A satd. aqueous soln. of KMnO4 kills greenhouse algae during 5 min. of submersion. Older parts of the liverwort thallus are also killed so that this treatment is unsuited for expts. involving a study of mineral nutrition. When added to the nutrient soln. in concs of 100, 10, and 1 ppm., the aromatic diamidines[long dash]propamidine, pentamidine, phenamidine, and stilbamidine[long dash]prevent the growth of most algae provided they are not present in large initial quantities. In the higher cones, these compounds inhibit the growth of Marchantia as well as of algae, but a conc. of 1 ppm. suppresses the growth of algae and does not perceptibly affect the liverwort, so that area and dry wt. of the latter are much greater than that of control plants. Propamidine is most effective, stilbamidine least, in the suppression of algae. Pentamidine causes marginal necrosis of Marchantia. One western clone failed to respond to the diamidine treatments.

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