Studies on Cold Injury in Different Growing Stage of Naked Barley.

Abstract

The authors investigated the damage of naked barley Hashirihadaka caused by the unusual low temperature happened in Mar. 1958, especially morphological and histologlcal observations were performed on materials at each principal growth stage. Brief description of the result is as follows : 1) Damages of plants at the differentiation stage of flower organ. Damaged plants were a little delayed in their growth and had some ears with a slight injury. But the yield decrease was hardly recognized, because of the few abnormality in ears and the good fertility in seeds. In microscopical view, pollen mother cells were at the differentiation stage from maturing to division, so some of which were injured. Such damaged one showed irregular development of cell, degeneration and corruption in a severe case. (Fig. 1-2) 2) Damages of plants from the beginning of booting to heading stage. Damages which appeared in ears were rather slight, but those ears which had already headed showed partial sterility. As pollens in an anther were forming the extin of microspore at this stage, it was observed that the inferior development, decrease in number of microspores, vacuolate pollens and empty anthers. (Fig. 1-4) 3) Damages of plants from the heading to flowering stage. Cold injury was so severe in this stage that the ears faded and became white, (so-called white-ear.) almost all of these ears showed sterility, either partially or perfectly. The elongation of culms, in general, was not so good that each stalks showed different height, namely showed irregular ear-line. Pollens which were in perfection or near perfection stopped their development, showing death and corruption, by the cold injury. Abnormalities were also observed in ovaries and anthers. (Fig. 1-6).