Tolerance of herbaceous summer legumes of temporary waterlogging
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17138/tgft(2)278-286Abstract
A greenhouse study to evaluate adaptation of 4 herbaceous summer legumes to temporary waterlogging was conducted. Species evaluated were Desmanthus virgatus and Aeschynomene americana in their vegetative stage, and Macroptilium lathyroides and M. atropurpureum in both vegetative and reproductive stages. The experimental design was randomized blocks with 5 replications and treatments were: T0, control; T1, saturation by capillary movement placing pots in buckets of 5 L with 10 cm of permanent water; and T2, flooding, placing pots in buckets of 10 L and a layer of water 5 cm above the soil. The duration of the water treatments was 7 days. Waterlogging did not affect shoot or root biomass production nor nodulation in A. americana, whereas D. virgatus had its highest dry matter production in saturated soil (T1). In M. lathyroides flooding tolerance was more evident in the reproductive than in the vegetative stage, probably due to more production of adventitious roots and formation of aerenchymatic tissue. Macroptilium atropurpureum showed adaptation to temporary flooding. Survival and quick recovery of these species would confirm their potential as forages for temporarily waterlogged soils.
Keywords: Forage legumes, flooding, Aeschynomene americana, Desmanthus virgatus, Macroptilium lathyroides, Northeast Argentina.
DOI: 10.17138/TGFT(2)278-286