The working-up of the huge amount of mown grass is a big problem
in management of road verges in Belgium. A biological approach to
reduce this cost could be given by the use of half-parasites that
counteract the production of biomass of the vegetation. The first
part of this project consists of a selection of potenital inte-
resting species. A comparison is being made of natural sites and
road verge vegetation. Seed production will be monitored. In the
second part, the concerned species will be sown in road verges
with divergent conditions (that could be interesting) and their
response monitored. An answer will be searched to the following
questions: How behave the most promessing species under field
conditions ans what is the amount of biomass reduction in road
verges? How do they react on mowing with removal of the hay?
How is seed production? What factors influence seed production
and the behavior in road verges? .....
