Abstract
Ornamental plants use unique adaptive mechanisms to overcome the negative effects of drought stress. A large number of species grown in the Mediterranean area offer the opportunity to select some for ornamental purposes with the ability to adapt to drought conditions. The plants tolerant to drought stress show different adaptation mechanisms to overcome drought stress, including morphological, physiological, and biochemical modifications. These responses include increasing root/shoot ratio, growth reduction, leaf anatomy change, and reduction of leaf size and total leaf area to limit water loss and guarantee photosynthesis. In this review, the effect of drought stress on photosynthesis and chlorophyll a fluorescence is discussed. Recent information on the mechanisms of signal transduction and the development of drought tolerance in ornamental plants is provided. Finally, drought-induced oxidative stress is analyzed and discussed. The purpose of this review is to deepen our knowledge of how drought may modify the morphological and physiological characteristics of plants and reduce their aesthetic value—that is, the key parameter of assessment of ornamental plants.
Highlights
Drought stress strongly limits the growth of plants in Mediterranean regions
This attention to water saving depends on the fact that even if the water in the urban environment is widely used for purposes other than irrigation, “a landscape may serve as a visual indicator of water use to the public due to its visual exposure” [7]
This affirms that the chloroplasts of Mediterranean species have different strategies during stress conditions for avoiding photo-inhibitory processes, such as the mechanism to consume the reducing power produced by the photosystem II (PSII) [64,65]
Summary
Drought stress strongly limits the growth of plants in Mediterranean regions. In the world, there are five Mediterranean-climate regions Water scarcity led to the diffusion of techniques for creating green spaces that are able to save water (xeriscaping), favoring the use of species tolerant of water stress, which are native species like the carob tree, a species that is highly tolerant to high temperature and to low soil water efficiency [6] This attention to water saving depends on the fact that even if the water in the urban environment is widely used for purposes other than irrigation (for example industrial and residential uses), “a landscape may serve as a visual indicator of water use to the public due to its visual exposure” [7]. Plant response to drought stress involves the interaction of various physiological and biochemical parameters that can be exploited as markers for the identification of tolerant species [12]
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