Morphological and Physiological Responses of Alysicarpus vaginalis L. (Aswenna), A Native Ground Cover; Under Induced Water Deficit Conditions
Nirma Subashini, Nuwan Chathuranga, Kapila Yakandawala and Lahiru Udayanga
Abstract
Background: Frequent occurrence of droughts has become a major challenge in agriculture and horticulture sectors, limiting the crop production. Therefore, screening for drought tolerance plants has become a key requirement in the landscape industry. The current study was conducted to investigate the drought tolerance ability of Alysicarous vaginalis L. (Fabaceae), to be used as a drought tolerant ground cover plant.
Methods: Tip cuttings of A. vaginalis were planted in pots and water stress conditions were imposed on plants through irrigating the plants up to the field capacity daily (T1: control), every fifth (T2), tenth (T3), fifteenth (T4) and twentieth (T5) day. Each treatment consisted of 20 replicates arranged in Completely Randomized Design inside a plant house. Morphological characteristics were recorded up to 60 days along with the survival rate of plants. General Linear Model (GLM) was used for the statistical comparisons.
Results: All the plants survived in all treatments. All the growth parameters differed significantly among the treatments (P<0.05 at 5% level of significance), where the highest leaf area, number of leaves, leaf fresh weight, leaf moisture content, shoot moisture content and shoot fresh weight were observed in T2, while, plants in T5 showed the lowest morphometric parameters, except for leaf hair density and root Length. Therefore, the significant water stress resistant characteristics were observed at T5.
Conclusions: A. vaginalis can be recommended as a water stress tolerant plant with a potential to be used in outdoor landscaping as a ground cover plant, with low maintenance requirements.
Keywords: Alysicarpus vaginalis, Drought Tolerance Plants, Ground Cover, Landscaping, Water Stress