Estimating Leaf Area Per Plant in Bambara Groundnut (Vigna subterranean) Using Leaf Number and Leaf Dry Weight

Abstract

Equations relating leaf area to leaf dry weight and leaf number were developed for two local landraces of bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean) grown in a greenhouse and in the field during the 1998/99 cropping season in Swaziland. During the seed filling stage the number of leaves on 10 plants per landrace were counted and the dry weight and are of individual terminal leaflets and trifoliate leaf areas, terminal leaflet areas and leaf dry weights were summed to give total leaf area/plant, total terminal leaflet indicated that leaf number per plant was not correlated with leaf area in bambara groundnut. However, leaf dry weight per plant was highly correlated with leaf area per plan in both genotypes (R-values ranged from 0.88 to 0.92). The ratio of the terminal leaflet area to the total trifoliate leaf area was constant (0.55) for both genotypes and for environments. Total leaf area per plant (mm2) for the dark red-seeded and the cream-seeded landraces used in the study, could be estimated for field grown plants by the following equations respectively: LA=5.72 + 3.71LDW (R2=0.84); LA = 281.67+11.52LDW (R2=0.77). Total leaf area per plant could also be estimated by multiplying the total terminal leaflet area by 1.8. This factor was found to be constant across genotypes and environments.

UNISWA Research Journal of Agriculture, Science and Technology Vol 3 (2) 2000: pp 63-65