Comparison of Photosynthetic Characteristics of Leaves in Pop Corn, Sweet Corn, and Glutinous Corn during the Late Growing Period

Abstract

The differences were studied among pop corn, sweet corn and glutinous corn in photosynthetic characteristics of leaves in different positions of the plants during the late growing period in the field conditions. The results showed that differences of photosynthetic characteristics of leaves were superior for glutinous corn than for the sweet corn and pop corn. Moreover all the indices of photosynthesis rate (Pn), content of chlorophyll (Chl), transpiration rate (Tr) and stomatal conductance (Gs) were glutinous cornsweet cornpop corn. The photosynthesis rate of mid-leaves was glutinous cornsweet cornpop corn, whereas the difference of photosynthesis among lower leaves in plant was not significant. The chlorophyll content (Chl) of top and middle leaves was pop cornsweet cornglutinous corn. Correlation analysis showed that it was significant at 5% or 1% probability levels in the different growing periods between Pn and Chl, Tr, Gs. At the same time, the photosynthetic characters of leaves in the top and middle positions of plant excelled those in the low leaves for all the three corn types. The Pn, Chl, duration for high Pn and Tr of glutinous corn were superior to pop corn and sweet corn; attenuation time for leaf photosynthetic capability of pop corn and sweet corn was earlier than that for glutinous corn.