ALSTONIA SCHOLARIS (L.) R.Br.- PLANTED BIOINDICATOR ALONG DIFFERENT ROAD-SIDES OF LAHORE CITY

摘要

A research work was carried out during 2009-2011 to investigate the biomonitoring potential of a road avenue tree,Alstonia scholaris (L.) R.Br. against the culminating pressure of aerial pollution in Lahore city. For this purpose sevenbusiest roads were selected on the basis of the flux of traffic and three leaf samples were taken for various biochemical andphysiological attributes from each of the A. scholaris tree of respective road. The geographic coordinates on the map can beused for future reference. Various floral attributes of plant were selected i.e., amount of dust (g), percent (%) leaf moisturecontent, photosynthetic rate (μMm-2S-1), transpiration rate (μMm-2S-1), stomatal conductance (mMm-2S-1), chlorophyllcontents (mg/g) and amount of carotenoids (mg/g) in the leaf samples. In case of % leaf moisture content, significantvariation between the control (61.95) and road side plants (50.76) was observed. While minute differences between thecontrol and road side plants were recorded in photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, chlorophyllcontents and carotenoids, which is an indication that day by day increasing air pollution pressure in Lahore city is playingpivotal role, not only in the morphological features of the plant but also affecting the physiological and biochemicalcharacteristics of the plant.