Vertical Wilting and Photosynthesis, Transpiration, and Water Use Efficiency of Sunflower Leaves

Abstract

Plants of two sunflower cultivars were exposed to a number of soil drying cycles and the gas exchange of young, fully expanded leaves at different nodes was measured continuously from when the leaves were turgid until when they were severely and vertically wilted. Peak rates of net photosynthesis increased with the height of leaf insertion but, regardless of node position, leaves at vertical wilting always had rates of net photosynthesis which were close to 50% of peak rates. Although the leaf water potential at which vertical wilting occurred ranged between - 1.3 and -2.2 MPa and varied even for a particular leaf position, there was a similar relationship between the rate of reduction in photosynthesis and the reduction in leaf water potential. No evidence was found for a threshold leaf water potential at which stomatal closure occurs.

Water use efficiency improved when leaves changed from a horizontal to a vertical orientation, apparently through changes in leaf temperature but. by the stage of wilting, water use efficiency had already markedly improved over efficiencies of turgid leaves. Much of this improvement stemmed from changes in leaf conductances. No clear differences between cultivars were evident in any parameter measured.

The likely effects that wilting will have on water use efficiency in the field and strategies for optimising water use on a diurnal basis are discussed.