Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EFFECTS OF WATER STRESS ON SOME MORPHOPHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST THORN (ZIZIPHUS SPINA-CHRISTI) SEEDLINGS

N. Nejat and H. Sadeghi

Abstract

Ziziphus spina-christi (ZSC) is a fruit tree species growing wild in arid and semi-arid areas of Asia and Africa where rural populations intensively use its fruits, leaves, bark and wood. Since transplanting of ZSC was established in dry areas, in order to investigate the effect of drought stress on morphologic characteristics of ZSC, this study has been conducted in factorial experiments from using completely random blocks design with four replicates (irrigation once every three, five and eight days), under greenhouse conditions in College of Agriculture, Shiraz University. The results showed that growth responses to the water stresses depends on drought levels. As the effect of water stress levels on healthy seedlings represent decrease amount of plant height and leaf number per plant by 50% and increased leaf proline in irrigation once every five and eight days by 50%.