Some Effects of Temperature on Carbohydrate Utilization and Plant Growth

Abstract

Present evidence suggests that, in a wide variety of crop plants, growth and net assimilation rate may be determined by the ability of the plant to utilize or store the products of photosynthesis rather than by the capacity of the assimilatory surface to produce them (Humphries 1963; Humphries and Thorne 1964; Thorne and Evans 1964; Burt 1964). Humphries (1963) further suggests that temperature, by varying the ability of the plant to utilize the assimilate, may partly govern the photosynthetic rate of the plant.