Effects of light quantity and quality on growth and reproduction of a clonal sedge,Cyperus esculentus

Abstract

AbstractCanopy shade reduces light quantity and quality, and hence affects plant growth and development. In order to investigate the respective effects of varying light quantity and quality on a clonal plantCyperus esculentus, a controlled‐environment study was conducted in growth chambers, in which four light environments were created using either green filters or neutral shade cloth. The experiment was harvested five times at approximately 2‐week intervals after transplanting. Results revealed that numbers of ramets and tubers, total leaf area, and the branching index of rhizomes were affected only by light quantity, while leaf and sheath lengths, leaf area ratio, leaf blade weight fraction, sheath weight fraction, stalk weight fraction, internode length of rhizomes, number of rhizomes, node number of rhizomes, total dry weight, percentage of flowering ramets, and flower weight fraction were affected by both light quality and quantity. Light quantity or quality had little influence on rhizome length, biomass allocation to rhizomes and tubers, and the ratio of tuber number to rhizome number. It is concluded that light quality and quantity had significant effects on growth, sexual reproduction (i.e. the percentage of flowering ramets and sexual reproductive allocation) and associated traits, but did not affect relative vegetative reproduction or storage (i.e. the tuber weight fractions and the fraction of rhizomes differentiated into tubers) inC. esculentus. Therefore, light quantity and quality have differential effects on the growth and morphology ofC. esculentus.