Annals of Botany 67: 487-495, 1991
© 1991 Annals of Botany Company
RESEARCH-ARTICLE |
Dry Matter Partitioning in a Determinate and an Indeterminate Cultivar of Vicia faba L. Under Contrasting Plant Distributions and Densities
Institut für Pflanzenbau und Grünland (340), Universität Hohenheim Fruwirthstr. 23, D-7000 Stuttgart 70, Germany
For correspondence
Accepted: 15 January 1991
Models for root: shoot, vegetative: generative and stem: leaf partitioning are presented to quantify dry matter partitioning of two contrasting genotypes of Vicia faba, an indeterminate and a ‘topless’. A third plant type, a determinate of which two to three inflorescences had been removed, was also included but behaved similarly to the intact plant. The root: shoot partitioning model predicts linear relationships between root proportion and the product of air vapour pressure deficit and relative growth rate. Data from field experiments were consistent with model prediction and coefficients estimated were similar for both genotypes. Partitioning into pods was modelled as proportional to the number of actively growing pods younger than 1000°C d. Coefficients estimated were similar in both genotypes but different between densities and years. In the indeterminate genotype, stem: leaf ratio was allometric throughout, whereas leaf growth ceased but stem growth continued in the determinate after formation of the terminal inflorescence. Relatively more dry matter was allocated to stems than to leaves in high than in low densities. In conclusion, the main differences in dry matter partitioning between genotypes concern leaf: stem partitioning during early pod filling and pod partitioning due to pod number differences.
Partitioning, root, shoot, leaf, stem, Vicia faba L.