Morpho-physiological changes of jatropha curcas leaves cultivated in marginal land under rain fed condition

摘要

Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) used as a source of biofuel is well documented. The physiological parameters of Jatropha have received less attention. In the present study, research was designed to evaluate the Morpho-Physiological study of leaf quality of Jatropha. An experiment was carried out in research field of Department of Botany, University of Science and Technology, Bannu during 2012. One year old J. curcas using 1.8m and 1.8m plant to plant distance. Randomized Completed Block Design was applied and experiment was replicated three times. One year old Jatropha plants were used to collect ten leaves from each canopies. Three canopies height (branches) from the ground were selected i.e 60-80cm (lower canopy), 100-120cm (Middle canopy) and 160-180cm (upper canopy). Lower canopy (60cm) leaves showed maximum Chlorophyll-a (2.2mg/g), Chlorophyll-b (1.933mg/g), Carotenoid (0.100mg/g), total chlorophyll content (4.133mg/g) and leaf area (946.267cm2). Upper canopy leaves (180cm) recorded maximum relative water content (90.10%) and increased leaf relative membrane permeability (28.6%). As minimum relative membrane permeability (17.3%) was observed in middle leaves. It is concluded that lower canopy leaves were more efficient and have potential for all photosynthetic process of plant.