Seed production in Cardiocrium cordatum: effects of nitrogen and dry mass availability of a plant

2006 ◽  
Vol 84 (5) ◽  
pp. 805-812
Author(s):  
Satoki Sakai ◽  
Akiko Sakai ◽  
Kohta Fujioka

To clarify how seed production depends on the relative N and dry mass availability, we examined the number and size of seeds, and the loss of dry mass in Cardiocrium cordatum (Thunb.) Makaino plants that differed naturally in overall size and stem N content. After adjusting for plant size (basal stem diameter was used as a criterion of plant size), the amount of dry mass lost because of respiration in a plant decreased with an increase in the stem N content of the plant, whereas the total dry mass of seeds of a plant increased with an increase in the stem N content. Plants with a high stem N content relative to dry mass status used dry mass resources more efficiently in seed production by reducing the loss of dry mass. Plants with a higher stem N content produced a greater number of seeds, and the amount of dry mass lost decreased with an increase in the number of seeds of the plant, possibly because the resources allocated to seed production are consumed rapidly, if numerous seeds simultaneously absorb those resources. However, the stem N content of a plant had no influence on the mean seed dry mass, seed N content, and the seed N concentration, and the latter three parameters did not affect respiration loss of dry mass. We concluded that plants undergoing seed production reduce dry mass loss if their relative N to dry mass availability is high, through an increase in the numbers of seeds they produce.

2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 681 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. E. Burrows

Seed production in woodland and isolated Eucalyptus melliodora Cunn. ex Schauer trees was investigated. Measurement of physical parameters such as mean capsule weight, mean seed weight and mean ratio of the weight of the capsule contents to the weight of the empty capsule showed no significant differences between woodland and isolated trees. In contrast, reproductive output as measured by mean number of seeds per capsule, mean number of seeds per 10 g of capsule contents and mean seed weight as a percentage of the weight of the capsule contents, was significantly lower (45–48% less) in isolated trees than in woodland trees. Mean percentage seed germination was also significantly lower (14% less) in the isolated trees and the mean number of viable seeds per 10 g of capsule contents was only 38% of the woodland trees. These results indicate that E. melliodora, like many eucalypts, has a mixed mating breeding system with preferential outcrossing but is also capable of self pollination leading to a reduction in seed yield and viability. The woodland and isolated trees produced a mean of 4.6 and 2.1 seeds per capsule, respectively. It would be relatively easy to collect large numbers of seeds from isolated trees of E. melliodora and subsequently propagate potentially genetically inferior plants.


2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 574-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arumugam Thiagarajan ◽  
Jianling Fan ◽  
Brian G. McConkey ◽  
H.H. Janzen ◽  
C.A. Campbell

To improve the estimates of C and N inputs to soil, we developed new estimates of partitioning between the harvested portion, aboveground residue, and belowground residue for 11 major crops based on depth-adjusted root/shoot ratios and grain yield-adjusted harvest indices. We updated the mean N concentration of each partition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 986-994
Author(s):  
JANAINA BORGES DE AZEVEDO FRANÇA ◽  
FREDERICO ANTONIO LOUREIRO SOARES ◽  
NEI PEIXOTO ◽  
MUZA DO CARMO VIEIRA ◽  
ANDERSON DIAS VAZ DE SOUZA

ABSTRACT The use of cultivars appropriate to the soil and climate characteristics of a region provides farmers with security by facilitating credit for crop financing and improving product prices in local commerce. The objective of this work was to evaluate the agronomic performance of “Contender” and “Amarelo Japonês” green bean bush cultivars grown in the Cerrado in terms of water replenishment (RH) of 25, 50, 75, 100, and 125% of evaporation using the Piché evaporimeter. The experiment was carried out in the experimental area of the State University of Goiás, on the Ipameri Campus. The experimental design was a randomized block design. Sowing was done in May 2017, with treatments distributed in a split-plots scheme with water replenishment in plots and cultivar subplots with 3 replications. The analyzed variables were: height; stem diameter; leaf number; leaf area; number of inflorescences; number of flowers; fresh and dry mass of the plant; number, length, diameter, fresh and dry mass of the pods. The different water replenishment rates increased the mean plant height, stem diameter, number of pods per plant, number of bean seeds per pod, and number of bean seeds per plant in the cultivars “Amarelo Japonês” and “Contender.” Water replenishment of 125% produced higher development and better agronomic performance in the two cultivars than the other rates.


2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Sakagawa Prataviera ◽  
Edmir Vicente Lamarca ◽  
Carmen Cinira Teixeira ◽  
Claudio José Barbedo

Seeds of Eugenia pyriformis may produce several seedlings after cutting. Both the type of cutting and the size of the seed can determine the success in obtaining new seedlings. The size of the seeds is dependent on both the number of seeds per fruit and the conditions in which seeds develop, as well as the biometric characteristics of these seeds obtained from different regions and seasons. The seeds from each origin were evaluated in length, width, thickness, water content and dry mass, as well as the average number of seeds per fruit. From one of the regions, seeds were grouped according to the number of seeds per fruit and also according to their size, and then cut into two and four parts, and then analyzed for the fragments germination. The results demonstrated the high capacity of these seed fragments to produce new seedlings, but the capability reduces with the reduction in seed size. This size depends not only on the number of seeds per fruit, but also on the region and the period of the seed production.


2019 ◽  
Vol 123 (7) ◽  
pp. 1253-1256
Author(s):  
Tomoyuki Itagaki ◽  
Jun Mochizuki ◽  
Yuta Aoyagi Blue ◽  
Masaya Ito ◽  
Satoki Sakai

Abstract Background and Aims Is there selection minimizing the costs of ovule production? Such selection should lead to a smaller ovule size in relation to seed size and, at the same time, smaller variation in ovule size within plants, the latter because the minimum structures and resources for functioning of ovules should be the same among ovules. Additionally, within species, ovule size should not depend on the plant’s resource status. Methods To confirm these predictions, we examined ovule and seed production for a variety of species. Key Results Among the 27 species studied, we found a significant negative dependence of the species mean of the coefficient of variation for plant ovule size on the ratio of the mean species seed size/mean species ovule size. Thus, the smaller the ovule size as compared with seed size, the smaller the degree of variation in ovule size. Among the 49 species studied, only two species showed significant positive dependence of mean ovule size on plant size. Although larger plants should have greater resources for ovule production, selection has not enhanced the production of large ovules in most species. Conclusions These results suggest that there is selection minimizing the costs of ovule production.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Qi ◽  
Yanan Zhao ◽  
Yufang Huang ◽  
Yang Wang ◽  
Wei Qin ◽  
...  

AbstractThe accurate and nondestructive assessment of leaf nitrogen (N) is very important for N management in winter wheat fields. Mobile phones are now being used as an additional N diagnostic tool. To overcome the drawbacks of traditional digital camera diagnostic methods, a histogram-based method was proposed and compared with the traditional methods. Here, the field N level of six different wheat cultivars was assessed to obtain canopy images, leaf N content, and yield. The stability and accuracy of the index histogram and index mean value of the canopy images in different wheat cultivars were compared based on their correlation with leaf N and yield, following which the best diagnosis and prediction model was selected using the neural network model. The results showed that N application significantly affected the leaf N content and yield of wheat, as well as the hue of the canopy images and plant coverage. Compared with the mean value of the canopy image color parameters, the histogram could reflect both the crop coverage and the overall color information. The histogram thus had a high linear correlation with leaf N content and yield and a relatively stable correlation across different growth stages. Peak b of the histogram changed with the increase in leaf N content during the reviving stage of wheat. The histogram of the canopy image color parameters had a good correlation with leaf N content and yield. Through the neural network training and estimation model, the root mean square error (RMSE) and the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the estimated and measured values of leaf N content and yield were smaller for the index histogram (0.465, 9.65%, and 465.12, 5.5% respectively) than the index mean value of the canopy images (0.526, 12.53% and 593.52, 7.83% respectively), suggesting a good fit for the index histogram image color and robustness in estimating N content and yield. Hence, the use of the histogram model with a smartphone has great potential application in N diagnosis and prediction for wheat and other cereal crops.


1997 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Setterington ◽  
Daniel M. Keppie

Relationships between external cone characteristics (length, width, wet and dry mass), cone quality (total seed mass as a proportion of cone mass, total number of seeds per cone, total seed mass per cone), and number of cones in caches were evaluated for caches of jack pine (Pinus banksiana) cones belonging to red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) in two plantations in southern New Brunswick. Cone length and mass were good predictors of the total number of seeds per cone and total seed mass per cone. Length accounted for a small proportion of the variance of total seed mass as a proportion of cone mass. There was no relationship between the number of seeds or total seed mass per cone and the number of cones per cache.


2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corine C. de Groot ◽  
Leo F. M. Marcelis ◽  
Riki van den Boogaard ◽  
Hans Lambers

The interactive effects of irradiance and N on growth of young tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) were studied. Plants were grown at 70 or 300 μmol photons m–2 s–1, hereafter referred to as 'low' and 'high' irradiance, and at a range of exponential N supply rates (70–370 mg g–1 d–1) or at a constant concentration in the nutrient solution of 12 mM NO3–. At both irradiance levels, leaf area ratio was more important than net assimilation rate (NAR) in explaining effects of N on growth at mild N limitation. However, at severe N limitation, NAR became the most important parameter, as indicated by calculated growth response coefficients. Furthermore, this study shows that N supply and growth irradiance interacted strongly. The decrease of specific leaf area with increasing N limitation and increasing growth irradiance correlated with increasing leaf dry mass percentage and starch concentration. Furthermore, at low irradiance, plants partitioned more dry mass to the stem. Dry mass partitioning to roots increased with decreasing plant N concentration, and this relation appeared to be independent of irradiance. Shading increased plant N concentration and decreased dry mass partitioning to roots. Also, the relationship between plant N concentration and N partitioning to different plant organs was largely independent of growth irradiance.


1990 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Heilman

Eleven months after the May 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens in southeastern Washington, United States, three Populus clones were planted in an experiment on the Toutle River mudflow deposit. The trees grew at an abnormally slow rate and by 3 years were overtopped by a dense stand (14 600 ± 3600 trees/ha) of red alder seeded naturally onto the site. Over the 6-year period of the study, the total N content of the soil increased an average of 56 kg•ha−1•year−1•. Foliar N concentration in Populus increased significantly from a mean late summer – early autumn value in the 2nd year (1982) of 0.69% N to a value of 2.06% N at the end of the seventh growing season. The mean annual height growth of the largest Populus averaged <0.5 m/year in the first 3 years, increasing to an average of over 1.0 m/year in the 5th and 6th years. Fertilizer treatments with N (as urea) and N + P (as urea plus treble superphosphate) placed in the soil near the individual Populus at a maximum rate of 5.3 g N/tree increased height growth in the year of fertilization (1982) and the following year (the response in height growth for the 2 years totaled 64%). After 1984, no significant effects of fertilizer on height growth, total height, or diameter were evident. Nitrogen fertilization significantly increased foliar N concentration (1.54% N with the highest N treatment vs. 0.69% N in the control) in the year of treatment only. Phosphorus fertilization had no significant effect on growth or foliar P concentration. At 6 years, only 2% of the Populustrichocarpa Torr. & Gray clone and 13% of the tallest Populus hybrid were equal to or above the mean height of alder dominants and codominants (6.2 m). Additionally, the diameter growth of Populus was severely limited: the trees had only 8% of the cross-sectional area of "normal" trees for their height. Results indicated that on sites of low N such as the mudflow, Populus may not compete satisfactorily in mixture with alder. Such behavior is in sharp contrast to sites of high N, where red alder cannot compete with Populus.


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-497
Author(s):  
E Soltani ◽  
A Soltani ◽  
S Galeshi ◽  
F Ghaderi-far ◽  
E Zeinali

Volunteer canola (Brassica napus) and Sinapis arvensis are well identified weeds of different cropping systems. Quantitative information on regarding seed production by them is limited. Such information is necessary to model dynamics of soil seed banks. The aim of this work was to quantify seed production as a function of the size of those weeds. A wide range of plant size was produced by using a fan seeding system performed at two sowing dates (environments). Plant size varied from 3 to 167 g per plant for canola and from 6 to 104 g per plant for S. arvensis. Seed production ranged from 543 to14,773 seeds per plant for canola, and from 264 to 10,336 seeds per plant for S. arvensis. There was a close relationship between seed production per plant and plant size which was well-described by a power function (y = 130.6x0.94; R² = 0.93 for canola and y = 28x1.27; R² = 0.95 for S. arvensis). There was also strong relationships among the number of pods produced in individual plants and the quantity of seeds produced (g per plant) with the size of the plant. The relationships found in this study can be used in dynamic seed bank models of volunteer canola and S. arvensis.


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