Data Article

# Dataset of seed characteristics of the main weeds on Reunion Island

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Marion Schwartz<sup>a,b,*</sup>, Sandrine Auzoux<sup>a,b</sup>, Abel Etheve<sup>a,b</sup>, Thomas Le Bourgeois<sup>c,d</sup>, Mathias Christina<sup>b,e</sup>, Aude Ripoche<sup>a,b,f,g</sup>

ARTICLE INFO

Article history:

Received 19 February 2024

Revised 25 September 2024

Accepted 14 October 2024

Available online 22 October 2024

Dataset link: Seed description (Original data)

Keywords:

Database

Functional traits

Characterization

Tropics

Identification

Weed science

A B S T R A C T

Characterizing seeds of tropical weeds is crucial for future research to understand their ability to disperse in space and time through their seeds, and building up seed banks. Seeds of 55 weed species occurring on Reunion Island were collected and characterized. Seeds were described by their shape, size, color, texture, hairiness, or particular markings. Seed traits were recorded in a database in French and English. It has been published on the CIRAD AMATROP database, which centralizes datasets on tropical weeds. It will be updated as new weed seeds from tropical regions are characterized. In a long-term perspective, these data allow for creating a multicriteria identification key to identify seeds to study seed stocks in agricultural fields.

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

Article history:

Received 19 February 2024

Revised 25 September 2024

Accepted 14 October 2024

Available online 22 October 2024

Dataset link: Seed description (Original
data)

Keywords:

Database

Functional traits

Characterization

Tropics

Identification

Weed science

<footnote><sup>a</sup> CIRAD, UPR AIDA, F-97743, 40 chemin grand canal, 97490 Saint-Denis, La Réunion, France</footnote>

<footnote><sup>b</sup> AIDA, University of Montpellier, CIRAD - Avenue Agropolis, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France</footnote>

<footnote><sup>c</sup> CIRAD, UMR AMAP, F-34398, Avenue Agropolis, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, Montpellier, France</footnote>

<footnote><sup>d</sup> AMAP, University of Montpellier, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, CIRAD - Avenue Agropolis, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France</footnote>

<footnote><sup>e</sup> CIRAD, UPR AIDA, F-34398, Avenue Agropolis, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, Montpellier, France</footnote>

<footnote><sup>f</sup> CIRAD, UPR GECO, F-97743, 40 chemin grand canal, 97490, Saint-Denis, La Réunion, France</footnote>

<footnote><sup>g</sup> GECO, University of Montpellier, CIRAD - Avenue Agropolis, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France</footnote>

<footnote>* Corresponding author at: CIRAD, UPR AIDA, F-97743, 40 chemin grand canal, 97490 Saint-Denis, La Réunion, France.
E-mail address: marion.schwartz@cirad.fr (M. Schwartz).</footnote>
<table><caption>Specifications Table</caption><tr><td>Subject</td><td>Agronomy and Crop Science</td></tr><tr><td>Specific subject area</td><td>Weed sciences in tropical regions. Characterization of tropical weed species</td></tr><tr><td>Type of data</td><td>Table<br>Filtered</td></tr><tr><td>Data collection</td><td>Seeds from 55 broadleaved weed species belonging to 17 families were harvested from October 2021 to August 2022 on Reunion Island (France) from fallow plots at CIRAD experimental sites at La Mare (–20.902, 55.532; 70 m altitude) and La Bretagne (–20.902, 55.532; 80 m altitude) stations. Seeds were harvested manually from weed plants at the seed maturity stage (BBCH scale of Zadoks [1]). The seeds were cleaned to remove impurities and, if necessary, extracted from the fruit. They were then air-dried before being stored and labeled.<br>The seeds of each species were then described by (1) their shape, (2) their size (length and width, diameter in case of round seeds), (3) their color, (4) the texture of the tegument, (5) their hairiness and (6) other notable morphological characters (particular appendages, hilum...). The dissemination organs are also described if they are still present when the seeds are dispersed (e.g., capsule), based on the same characters mentioned above. Seed size (length, width, and diameter) was measured with the DinoCapture 2.0 software (version 1.5.44.D) integrated with the Dino-Lite AM4515ZT (R9) binocular loupe on ten seeds of each species, then averaged.</td></tr><tr><td>Data source location</td><td><ul><li>Institution: CIRAD</li><li>City/Town/Region: La Mare and La Bretagne, La Réunion.</li><li>Country: France</li><li>Latitude and longitude (and GPS coordinates, if possible) for collected samples/data: (–20.902, 55.532; 70 m altitude), and (–20.902, 55.532; 80 m altitude)</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td>Data accessibility</td><td>Repository name: CIRAD AMATROP dataverse [2]<br>Data identification number: doi: 10.18167/DVN1/A0LT82<br>Direct URL to data [3]:<br>https://dataverse.cirad.fr/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.18167/DVN1/A0LT82</td></tr><tr><td>Related research article</td><td></td></tr></table>

# 1. Value of the Data

* In agriculture, weeds are the most damaging crop pests [4]. Weed management is thus a significant concern for farmers in Reunion Island [5]. However, the biology of tropical weeds remains very little studied.

* Seed identification is necessary to address two main issues: assessing the degree of purity of a seed lot (to prevent the introduction of exotic species into an environment) and accurately identifying a species from its seed, particularly in soil seedbank assessment.

* Several image and seed characteristic databases already exist for temperate species [6–9], but none for tropical weeds

* These data will allow further research on the temporal and spatial dynamics of the soil seed-bank of tropical weeds. They can be used by all organizations in tropical areas studying tropical weed science because most of the species observed on Reunion Island are pantropical species.

* In the short term, seeds of other species will be collected and described progressively to complete the dataset with the aim of having a database available for most of the weed species of Reunion Island. Other seed traits (such as weight, surface area, coat thickness...) will be added to the dataset.

* In the long term, these data will help to build a multicriteria identification system that could be developed on the same model as the WIKWIO IDAO tool published for tropical weeds [10].
## 2. Background

Improving the efficiency of weed control practices and weed management in general requires a better understanding of the biology of weed species and, more specifically, their seeds (production, germination, dormancy...). Swanton and Booth [11] have identified four weed management strategies that target four important stages in their life cycle: (1) increasing seed mortality, (2) controlling seed germination and emergence, (3) reducing seed production, and (4) destroying above-ground weed biomass. Three of these four strategies require a good knowledge on weed seeds. However, the main weed management techniques implemented by farmers in tropical areas focus on the fourth strategy: limiting direct weed competition with the crop. A better understanding of seeds' temporal and spatial dynamics in the environment and soil seedbank could allow us to find other weed management practices that use the above strategies.

Databases of images and characteristics of weed seeds already exist, such as Seed for Free [6]; I.D.SEED® of the GEVES (Groupe d'Etude et de contrôle des Variétés Et des Semences - Group for the Study and Control of Varieties and Seeds) [7]; Seed Identification Guide of the International Seed Morphology Association of ISMA [8] or Seed of South Australia [9]. However, all these databases are essentially about seeds of species from temperate regions. Thus, few seeds of tropical weeds have currently been characterized.

## 3. Data Description

Seeds of 55 broadleaved weed species from 17 families were collected and characterized. The corresponding dataset [3] has been published in 2023 under CC BY-SA 4.0 licence on the Amatrop Cirad dataverse [2].

The dataset contains 4 folders (2 in French and 2 in English):

(1) Description_graines_Fr

(2) Seed_description_En

(3) Description_variables_Fr

(4) Variable_description_En

In both French and English languages, the first two folders contain seed descriptions by 12 variables. In these two folders, lines correspond to species and columns correspond to variables. Folders 3) and 4) contain the list of the 12 variables described and their modalities or measure units. The different variables of the dataset are listed and described in Table 1.

## 4. Experimental Design, Materials and Methods

Seeds were harvested from October 2021 to August 2022 on Reunion Island (France) from fallow plots at La Mare (-20.902, 55.532; 70 m altitude) and La Bretagne (-20.902, 55.532; 80 m altitude) experimental CIRAD stations. About hundred seeds were harvested manually from several individuals of various weed species, at the seed maturity stage (BBCH scale of Zadoks [1]). The seeds were cleaned to remove impurities, malformed seeds, and, if necessary, extracted from the fruit. They were then air-dried before being stored and labeled. Ten seeds of each species were randomly selected for characterization, to consider heteromorphic forms present in certain species.

The seeds of each species were then described by (1) their shape, (2) their size (length and width, diameter in case of round seeds), (3) their color, (4) the texture of the tegument, (5) their pilosity and (6) other notable characteristics (particular appendages...). The organs of dissemination are also described if the seed remains embedded in it during dissemination (e.g., capsule), based on the same characteristics mentioned above. Seed size (length, width, and diameter) was measured with the DinoCapture 2.0 software (version 1.5.44.D) integrated with the Dino-Lite AM4515ZT (R9) binocular loupe on ten seeds of each species, then averaged.
<table><caption>**Table 1**
Variables of the dataset.</caption><thead><tr><th>Variable names</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Weed species names</td><td>The currently accepted scientific name of weed species, according to GBIF taxonomic reference [12]. Weed species and family described in the dataset are listed in Table 2</td></tr><tr><td>EPPO codes</td><td>The international 5 letters code from the EPPO Global Database [13]</td></tr><tr><td>Identification key version</td><td>Dataset is linked to a weed seed identification key system available in different versions in CIRAD's open archives AGRITROP (see below) and on the Wiktrop portal dedicated to tropical weeds (https://portal.wiktrop.org/fr/document/show/368762)</td></tr><tr><td>Seed main shape</td><td>Five main shapes have been identified: (1) trigonal, (2) reniform, (3) round-globose, (4) oval-oblong-ovoid, and (5) elongated-fusiform. More anecdotal forms have also been observed (right pavement, piriform...) and grouped under "various forms"</td></tr><tr><td>Seed shape (precision)</td><td>Detail of the shape of the seed (example: rolled up on itself...)</td></tr><tr><td>Seed length</td><td>Seed length (in mm)</td></tr><tr><td>Seed width</td><td>Seed width (in mm)</td></tr><tr><td>Color of the seed tegument</td><td>Color of the seed tegument</td></tr><tr><td>Texture of the seed tegument</td><td>Texture of the seed tegument (example: smooth, reticulated, ribbed...)</td></tr><tr><td>Pubescence of the seed tegument</td><td>Hairiness of the seed tegument (example: glabrous, dense white hair, yellow pubescence...)</td></tr><tr><td>Other characteristics of the seed</td><td>Other characteristics of the seed (example: the presence of pappus - a small tuft of hair, bristles or scales located at the top of some seeds; description of the hilum - scar of the attachment point of the seed...)</td></tr><tr><td>Seed descriptive text</td><td>Summarizes all the characteristics of the seed in a short text</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>**Table 2**
Weed species and family described in the dataset.</caption><thead><tr><th>Species</th><th>Families</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Aeschynomene americanum</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Ageratum conyzoides</td><td>Asteraceae</td></tr><tr><td>Amaranthus sp</td><td>Amaranthaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Argemone mexicana</td><td>Papaveraceae</td></tr><tr><td>Bidens pilosa</td><td>Asteraceae</td></tr><tr><td>Cajanus scarabaeoides</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Cardiospermum microcarpum</td><td>Sapindaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Centrosema pubescens</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Cleome viscosa</td><td>Cleomaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Coccinia grandis</td><td>Cucurbitaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Commelina benghalensis</td><td>Commelinaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Crassocephalum crepidioides</td><td>Asteraceae</td></tr><tr><td>Crotalaria juncea</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Crotalaria retusa</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Crotalaria spectabilis</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Crotalaria trichotoma</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Cyanthillium cinereum</td><td>Asteraceae</td></tr><tr><td>Desmanthus virgatus</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Desmodium tortuosum</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Distimake aegyptius</td><td>Convolvulaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Emilia sonchifolia</td><td>Asteraceae</td></tr><tr><td>Euphorbia heterophylla</td><td>Euphorbiaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Hibiscus surattensis</td><td>Malvaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Indigofera hirsuta</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Ipomoea eriocarpa</td><td>Convolvulaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Ipomoea hederifolia</td><td>Convolvulaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Ipomoea indica</td><td>Convolvulaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Ipomoea obscura</td><td>Convolvulaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Ipomoea triloba</td><td>Convolvulaceae</td></tr></tbody></table>

(continued on next page)
<table><caption>**Table 2 (continued)**</caption><thead><tr><td>Species</td><td>Families</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Leucaena leucocephala</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Leucas lavandulifolia</td><td>Lamiaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Macroptilium atropurpureum</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Malvastrum coromandelianum</td><td>Malvaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Melochia pyramidata</td><td>Malvaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Merremia tuberosa</td><td>Convolvulaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Mimosa diplotricha</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Momordica charantia</td><td>Cucurbitaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Mucuna pruriens</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Nicandra physaloides</td><td>Solanaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Oxalis corniculata</td><td>Oxalidaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Passiflora foetida</td><td>Malvaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Richardia scabra</td><td>Rubiaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Ricinus communis</td><td>Euphorbiaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Senna occidentalis</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Sida acuta</td><td>Malvaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Sida alba</td><td>Malvaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Solanum americanum</td><td>Solanaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Sonchus oleraceus</td><td>Asteraceae</td></tr><tr><td>Striga asiatica</td><td>Orobanchaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Synedrella nodiflora</td><td>Asteraceae</td></tr><tr><td>Tephrosia noctiflora</td><td>Fabaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Trichodesma indicum</td><td>Boraginaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Trichodesma zeylanicum</td><td>Boraginaceae</td></tr><tr><td>Tridax procumbens</td><td>Asteraceae</td></tr><tr><td>Youngia japonica</td><td>Asteraceae</td></tr></tbody></table>

**Limitations**

Seeds of 55 weed species were collected and characterized among the 220 weed species recorded on Reunion Island [14]. The species were chosen because they are widespread (frequent and abundant) in the island's agricultural plots and easy to collect. Seeds of other species will be collected and described progressively to complete the dataset with the aim of having a database available for most of the weed species of Reunion Island. Other measures will be added, such as seed weight, for example.

**Ethics Statement**

All of the authors have read and follow the ethical requirements for publication in Data in Brief and confirming that the current work does not involve human subjects, animal experiments, or any data collected from social media platforms.

**Credit Author Statement**

**Marion Schwartz:** Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Data curation. **Sandrine Auzoux:** Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. **Abel Etheve:** Methodology, Investigation, Writing – review & editing. **Thomas Le Bourgeois:** Methodology, Validation, Writing – review & editing. **Mathias Christina:** Writing – review & editing, Project administration. **Aude Ripoche:** Writing – review & editing, Supervision.
# Data Availability

Seed description (Original data) (Dataverse).

# Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Conseil Régional de La Réunion and the European Union (Feader program, grant n° AG/974/DAAF/2016-00096 and Feder program, grant n° GURTDI 20151501-0000735) as part of the CAPTERRE project (Compromis en Agriculture pour un Territoire Durable).

# Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

# References

[1] J.C. Zadoks, T.T. Chang, C.F. Konzak, A decimal code for the growth stages of cereals, Weed Res. 14 (6) (1974) 415-421.

[2] T.L. Bourgeois, S. Auzoux, P. Marnotte, B. Fayolle, Amatrop: Tropical weed Studies Dataverse, Cirad, Montpellier, France, 2020 https://dataverse.cirad.fr/dataverse/amatrop.

[3] Schwartz, M., Le Bourgeois, T., Etheve, A., 2023, "Base de données de description de graines d'adventices tropicales", 10.18167/DVN1/A0LT82, CIRAD Dataverse, VI.

[4] E.C. Oerke, H.W. Dehne, F. Schonbeck, A. Weber, Crop Production and Crop Protection-Estimated Losses in Major Food and Cash Crops, Elsevier Science, AmsterdamThe Netherlands, 1994.

[5] J. Martin, L. Maillary, S. Dutripon, G. Chaulot, J. Antoir, J. Masson, L'IFT herbicides canne à sucre à la Réunion: la baisse semble amorcée. 23ème conférence du COLUMA, Journées Internationales Sur la Lutte Contre les Mauvaises Herbes, AFFP, Dijon, France, 2016.

[6] Seed for free. http://seed.for.free.fr (accessed 2023).

[7] GEVES, I.D.SEED®, https://www.idseed.org/seedidguide/keys.html, 2016 (accessed 2023).

[8] ISMA - International Seed Morphology Association. Seed Identification Guide. https://www.idseed.org/, 2018 (accessed 2023).

[9] South Australian Seed Conservation Centre, Botanic Gardens of South Australia, Seeds of South Australia. https://spapps-environment.sa.gov.au/seedsofsa/, 2020 (accessed 2023).

[10] T. Le Bourgeois, P. Grard, A.P. Andrianaivo, A. Gaungoo, Y. Ibrahim, J.A. Randriamampianina, D. Balasubramanian, P. Marnotte, B. Ramesh, V. Andrianavalona, F. Hadji, Y. Karthik, M. Ramamonjihasina, K. Sathish, A. Seechurn, 2015. WIKWIO - Weed Identification and Knowledge in the Western Indian Ocean - IDAO -, European Union programme ACP S&T II, Cirad, IFP, MCIA/MSIRI, FOFIFA, CNDRS eds. http://www.wikwio.org/idao/.

[11] C.J. Swanton, B.D. Booth, in: Management of Weed Seedbanks in the Context of Populations and Communities, Weed Technology, USA, 2004, pp. 1496-1502.

[12] GBIF Secretariat: GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. 10.15468/39omei Accessed via https://www.gbif.org/species/[13 January 2020].

[13] EPPO. EPPO Global Database. https://gd.eppo.int/.

[14] T.Le Bourgeois, E. Jeuffrault, L'identification pratique des adventices de La Réunion, Phyt. - Déf. Cult. 551 (2002) 13-14.