Morphological characters and ascorbic acid content of an elite genotype of Corchorus olitorius: the influence of moisture stress

Abstract

Moisture stress can be deleterious to physicochemical properties of crop species to a varying degree. The influence of moisture stress on the ascorbic acid content in the leaf and morphological characters of an elite genotype of Corchorus olitorius were tested in a glasshouse experiment. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design replicated four times. The results of the study showed that a distinct moisture-stress threshold, described as heavy moisture stress, existed for the genotype and ascorbic acid accumulation in the leaves decreased by up to 88.7% because of moisture stress. A comparison of the control with heavy moisture stress showed a decline of 57.1% and 68.4% for plant height and number of leaves, respectively. A degree of resilience of C. olitorius to moisture stress was observed with increasing plant age, but with a significant trade-off in the nutritional quality of the genotype at harvest.

Keywords: ascorbic acid, Corchorus olitorius, elite genotype, harvest age, moisture stress, morphological characters

South African Journal of Plant and Soil 2013, 30(2): 113–117