Leaf morphoanatomy of four red grapevine cultivars grown under the same terroir

Abstract

This study compare leaf morphoanatomical characteristics of four red cultivars - ‘Touriga Nacional’, ‘Trindadeira’, ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ and ‘Syrah’ -, grown side by side at the same terroir. The analyzed leaf traits, under light and scanning electron microscopy, showed large variability among genotypes. ‘Trincadeira’ has the biggest single leaf area and ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ the smallest one. ‘Touriga Nacional’ showed the lowest leaf dry weight and ‘Trincadeira’ the highest one, nonetheless there was no significantly differences in leaf dry mass per area and in leaf density. Leaf dry mass per area was positively correlated with leaf density but showed no correlation with leaf thickness. The French genotypes presented higher thickness of the leaf anatomical traits than the two Portuguese ones. ‘Trincadeira’ showed significantly highest stomata density while the other cultivars showed no significant differences among them. The analyses of the three types of stomata revealed that ‘Trincadeira’ has the lower percentage of raised above and the highest percentage of sunken stomata while ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ showed the opposite behaviour. The hairs on the lower surface presented a similar woolly aspect in all cultivars. The possible role of leaf morphoanatomical characteristics in determining the cultivars adaptation to abiotic stresses is suggested and discussed.