Amomum villosum, which is an important perennial medicinal plant, easily suffers from continuous cropping obstacles in the plantation. The aim of this study is to find an effective method to solve the problem of A. villosum continuous cropping. In this study, we analyzed four fields in which A. villosum was continuously cropped and a fallow field to reveal the effects of continuous cropping on the rhizosphere soil physicochemical properties, enzyme activities, and bacterial and fungal communities. Most of the soil nutrient contents gradually increased as the number of years of continuous cropping increased, whereas the soil pH decreased slightly. The soil urease and acid phosphatase activities tended to increase as the length of the continuous cropping period increased, which may have accelerated the conversion of soil substances. Furthermore, the alpha diversity of the bacterial and fungal communities decreased as the duration of the continuous cropping period increased. Additionally, the redundancy analysis revealed that bacterial and fungal community structures at the phylum level were the most correlated with pH value and catalase activity, respectively. This study may be useful for promoting the continuous cropping and sustainable development of A. villosum.

The forest–medicinal plant management system has benefited the commercial production of Amomum villosum. However, little is known about the influence of different forestlands on the cultivation of A. villosum. The present study investigated the potential differences in the A. villosum yield and quality parameters, rhizosphere soil properties, and rhizosphere soil microbiota between a rubber plantation (RP) and a natural secondary forest (NSF). No significant differences in yield or rhizosphere soil properties of A. villosum were observed between RP and NSF, although most of the A. villosum yield parameters, the rhizosphere soil physicochemical properties, and soil enzyme activities were higher in NSF than in RP. Furthermore, the 38 volatile components had significantly higher relative abundances in NSF than in RP. Furthermore, the alpha diversity indices for the microbiota communities in the A. villosum rhizosphere soil indicated that the richness of the bacterial and fungal communities was significantly higher in NSF than in RP. These findings suggest that NSF conditions may be more appropriate than RP conditions for growing A. villosum. The data generated in this study may be useful for increasing the production of high-quality A. villosum via the exploitation of natural environments.

Bletilla striata is an important Chinese herbal plant grown widely in southwest China (Qian et al. 2021). Leaf blight was found on cultivated bletilla crops in Yunnan in 2021. The disease infected ...

Introduction: Drought is a major abiotic stress limiting coffee production globally. While grafting improves abiotic stress tolerance, the relative contributions of scion and root stock to drought resistance in intraspecific and interspecific grafted Coffea seedlings remain unclear across different stress intensities. Methods: We hypothesized that scion genotype dominates drought responses under severe water stress, whereas rootstock effects prevail under normal irrigation. To test this, we conducted a 120-day pot experiment using daily weighing and replenishment, with three treatments: normal supply (18-25% soil water), mild drought (15-17%), and severe drought (10-12%). Two C. canephora scions (‘Dafeng No.1’,‘Reyan No.5’) were grafted onto intraspecific (‘Reyan No.2’) and interspecific (‘Charlie No.16’) rootstocks. Results: ‘Reyan No.5’ scion conferred superior drought tolerance under severe stress via stronger membrane stability (lower malondialdehyde, MDA), higher osmotic adjustment, and more stable antioxidant defense (super oxide dismutase, SOD; peroxidase, POD; catalase, CAT) .‘Dafeng No.1’ showed higher water use efficiency (WUE) under mild stress but suffered greater oxidative damage. Principal component analysis confirmed scion genotype explained 44. 78% of total physiological variation. Discussion: These findings clarify scion dominance in severe drought tolerance and guide drought-resistant coffee grafting selection.