Abstract
Drought responses of turf-type Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.) and Bahia grass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) in relation to their growth, carbon allocation and accumulation of nonstructural carbohydrates were investigated. Seedlings were exposed to a 20 day terminal drought, followed by 20 day recovery with irrigation. Leaf dry matter was lower in water-stressed plants than control plants by the end of drought, but did not differ in roots. For both species, more carbon was allocated towards roots in response to drought. Total nonstructural carbohydrate (TNC) concentration in shoots was increased in drought-stressed plants of both species. However, root TNC concentrations in Bahia grass were decreased after drought. TNC pool sizes also showed a similar variation, hence correlated with TNC concentrations. Bahia grass maintained a better quality than Bermuda grass after the drought, having recorded a higher aesthetic score, higher relative water content and a lower electrolyte leakage. Results suggest that, both species are considerably tolerant to short-term drought though Bahia grass seems more promising.Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 6(1): 12-16
Highlights
Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.) and Bahia grass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) are two popular polymorphic turf grass species having C4 photosynthetic pathway
Twenty-day terminal drought reduced the proportion of biomass allocated to shoots but increased the proportion allocated to roots in both species (Fig. 2)
At the end of the stress period, shoot mass ratio (SMR) of droughted plants decreased by 13.6 % and 7.2 % in Bermuda grass (BMD) and Bahia grass (BHI) respectively in comparison to their controls
Summary
Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.) and Bahia grass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) are two popular polymorphic turf grass species having C4 photosynthetic pathway. Both species are distributed most abundantly in tropical and subtropical regions, but are sparsely distributed in temperate regions (Galiano, 1985; Tischler and Burson, 1995). It is well established that waterstressed plants tend to have a smaller proportion of their biomass as shoots (i.e. reduced shoot mass ratio – SMR). This ontogenic drift may effectively reduce stress at leaf level, while reducing the whole-plant growth (Fernandez et al, 2002)
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