EFFECTS OF CALCIUM AND SOIL FLOODING ON ANATOMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SARACURA BRS-4154 MAIZE (Zea mays L.) LEAVES

Abstract

The Saracura BRS-4154 maize cultivar presents tolerance to hypoxia conditions coming from soil flooding. Physiological and anatomical alterations are involved on plants adaptation process to environments with low oxygen pressure. At the same time, calcium, besides being a structural element which participates of cell wall constituents, increased the tolerance of the saracura maize plants submitted to gaseous stress. The objective of this work was to evaluate the morph-anatomical alterations of saracura maize leaves, under influence of calcium chloride application and soil flooding in plants at flowering stage of growth. The experiment was carried out at green house and treatments were held either with or without calcium application in normally irrigated or flooded soil. Transversal cuts and paradermical were prepared according to usual techniques of plant micro technique. The data collected showed significant alterations for stomata’s size, curvature angle of leaf blade, polar diameters of bulliform cells and median thickness of nervure, vascular bundle, metaxylem, mesophyll, adaxial and abaxial epidermal.

Keywords

• Poaceae
• hypoxia
• nutrient: morfology