How does caffeine with water affect a plant?

Question

Please explain it is for a project and I can't find anything.

Answer 1

Camellia sinensis (tea leaf source) uses caffeine to harm competitive plants.  This process of plants using phytotoxins against other plants is called allelopathy.

Here is a sample experiment

http://www.plantingscience.org/index.php...

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_caffe...

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects200...

"The scarcity of weeds around coffee trees is related at least in part to a slow rate of leaching of caffeine from the tree canopy as well as from litter and lost coffee beans."

http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Entomolog...

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:ySC...

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/200...

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/bo...

Caffeine has antifungal, and selective phytotoxic properties as well as acting as a chemosterilant in certain insects.

http://books.google.com/books?id=WxmBmvh...

‘Purine Alkaloids of the Fruits of Camellia sinensis L. and Coffea arabica L. during Fruit Development*’

http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/conten...