A comparison of the competitive ability between Saururus chinensis and S. cernuus in waterlogged conditions

Saururus is a genus of plants in the family Saururaceae containing two species: S. cernuus, native to North America, and S. chinensis, native to Asia, including Korea. S. cernuus has been globally extensively used as a garden plant, but S. chinensis has not. This study was conducted to determine the applicability of S. chinensis (SCH) as a garden plant in waterfront conditions compared to that of S. cernuus (SCE). We examined the intraspecific and interspecific competitions between the two Saururus species with or without the waterlogging condition. Both Saururus species displayed a decreased growth rate as the planting density increased regardless of planting competition, showing that SCH is weak in interspecific competition to SCE, but SCE declines sharply in the same species competition. As a result, both Saururus species have different strategies to survive in the interspecific planting competition. SCE has more vigorous shoots than SCH, while SCH has productive root systems of robust rhizomes. Under interspecific competitions, SCH, which has relatively weak shoots, focused on its root growth, and SCE concentrated on shoot growth instead. Furthermore, the results of this study show that SCH can be well adapted in waterfront conditions as a garden plant.