Adaptive Responses of Some Zygophyllum Species in Wadi Hagul, Egypt | ||
| Taeckholmia | ||
| Article 5, Volume 34, Issue 1, 2014, Pages 77-99 PDF (741.36 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/taec.2014.12243 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Amal Morsy,* ; A. Youssef; H. Mosallam; E. Gamal | ||
| Faculty of science, Ain Shams University | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Three species, Zygophyllum coccineum L., Zygophyllum decumbens Delile and Zygophyllum simplex L., (Zygophyllaceae) were collected from three localities of Wadi Hagul in Egypt to study their adaptive responses to different environmental conditions. Plant analyses (degree of succulence, water content, total pigments, proline, antioxidant enzymes, total phenols, ascorbic acid, hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde) were estimated to study their roles in the adaptive responses of those plants under their natural drought conditions. Results have revealed that xerophytes can further be divided into two groups depending on their drought tolerance strategies. The first group includes perennial plants (Zygophyllum coccineum and Zygophyllum decembens) that able to tolerate and resurrect following desiccation into photosynthetically active states in a short period of time, the other is the dessication avoiding group; annual or biennial plant (Zygophyllum simplex), which possess an improved water-storing organ, efficient water conduction within the plant body and/or a combination of these features. Moreover, plants in this group (true xerophytes) are thought to have a unique system to cope with stress tolerance, since they are able to defend their photosynthetic apparatus and other fragile cellular components from composite stresses in the harsh environments in which they are found. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| drought; succulence; Zygophyllum; Wadi Hagul | ||
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