Allelopathy:"Novel Weapons"of exotic invasive plants
化感——外来入侵植物的“Novel Weapons”

This article briefly reviewed the theories and hypothesis about exotic invasive plants."Novel Weapons"hypothesis(NW hypothesis)advanced from allelopathy was mainly introduced.Exotic invaders produce some biochemicals that function as allelopathic agents,or as mediators of new plant-soil microbial interactions.Due to differences in the regional coevolutionary trajectories of plant communities,these chemicals can become novel weapons of plant invaders,and may inhibit the growth of plants in invaded communities.In the invaders' original community,their natural neighbors are not so sensitive to the chemicals because of the long-term adaptation.NW hypothesis established the theoretical basis for allelopathy as one of the mechanisms of exotic plant invasion,and provided the theoretical grounds for prevention of exotic invasive plants,but more studies should be conducted to support this new hypothesis.