Identification of Drought-Tolerant Woody Perennials Using Chlorophyll Fluorescence

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Figure 1.
The influence of drought on chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthetic rate of five woody perennials with time.

Table 1

The effect of leaf detachment on photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm) of woody plants tested.

Species	Fv/Fm
Species	Whole plant	Detached leaf
Aucuba japonica ‘Variegata’	0.810^ns	0.809^ns
Pinus sylvestris	0.807^ns	0.808^ns
Mahonia × media ‘Charity’	0.811^ns	0.807^ns
Prunus laurocerasus ‘Zabeliana’	0.809^ns	0.811^ns
Weigela florida	0.813^ns	0.814^ns
Pieris ‘Forest Flame’	0.810^ns	0.807^ns
Ilex aquifolium	0.815^ns	0.818^ns
Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’	0.812^ns	0.811^ns
Juglans regia	0.804^ns	0.808^ns
Salix daphnoides	0.810^ns	0.806^ns
LSD P < 0.05	0.075
LSD P < 0.01	0.043

Species = ns, leaf detachment = ns, species X leaf detachment = ns.
All values mean of 10 plants; 10 leaves per plant.
ns = not significant.

Table 2

The influence of 24-hour dehydration on photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm) of detached leaves of woody plants.

Species	Fv/Fm
Quercus ilex	0.801 (1.42)^ns
Aucuba japonica ‘Variegata’	0.791 (2.46)^ns
Viburnum davidii	0.789 (2.59)^ns
Skimmia japonica ‘Rubella’	0.779 (3.22)^ns
Pinus sylvestris	0.777 (3.24)^ns
Olearia chathamica	0.769 (4.17)^ns
Berberis × ottawensis ‘Superba’	0.763 (5.80)^ns
Mahonia × media ‘Charity’	0.760 (6.02)^ns
Clematis ‘Elsa Spaeth’	0.758 (6.19)^ns
Hedera helix ‘Golden child’	0.751 (7.28)*
Garrya elliptica	0.751 (7.39)*
Prunus laurocerasus ‘Zabeliana’	0.750 (7.41)*
Hedera helix ‘Hibernica’	0.744 (7.52)*
Weigela florida	0.728 (10.12)*
Griselinia ‘littoralis’	0.702 (13.33)*
Sorbus aucuparia	0.700 (13.69)*
Prunus lusitanica ‘Variegata’	0.693 (14.45)*
Pieris ‘Forest Flame’	0.690 (14.88)*
Berberis darwinii	0.652 (19.81)*
Escallonia ‘Iveyi’	0.646 (21.03)*
Sarcococca var. humilis	0.636 (22.63)*
Ilex aquifolium	0.636 (23.15)*
Malus sylvestris	0.624 (23.22)*
Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’	0.620 (24.00)*
Aesculus hippocastanum	0.616 (24.31)*
Juglans regia	0.588 (27.41)*
Laburnum × vossi	0.555 (31.48)*
Fagus sylvatica	0.548 (32.49)*
Salix daphnoides	0.448 (44.69)*
Spiraea japonica ‘Shirobana’	0.421 (51.91)*

All values mean of 10 plants; 10 leaves per plant.
Species = *, dehydration = *, species X dehydration = *, ns = not significant, * = P ≤ 0.05.
Values in parentheses represent reductions in Fv/Fm from controls expressed as a percentage. Species are ranked in order of tolerance based on percentage reductions in Fv/Fm from controls.

Table 3

The influence of 70 days’ drought on growth and mortality of five woody plant species.

Species	Leaf dry weight (g)		Shoot dry weight (g)		Root dry weight (g)		Time to wilting (days)	Time to leaf drop (days)	Mortality (%)
Species	Control	Drought	Control	Drought	Control	Drought	Time to wilting (days)	Time to leaf drop (days)	Mortality (%)
Aucuba japonica ‘Variegata’	13.85	9.51*	4.63	3.14*	24.2	16.3*	48	−	35
LSD	3.32		1.28		6.22
Prunus laurocerasus ‘Zabeliana’	12.58	9.00*	7.72	6.72^ns	32.7	21.1*	45	−	40
LSD	3.22		2.21		7.15
Pieris ‘Forest Flame’	12.55	6.85*	10.50	5.02*	9.11	3.40*	30	45	75
LSD	3.03		2.10		1.89
Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’	10.35	2.07*	12.64	8.60*	8.53	3.28*	25	36	95
LSD	1.67		2.41		1.63
Spiraea japonica ‘Shirobana’	6.63	0.00*	17.78	10.79*	10.12	4.41*	9	21	100
LSD	1.07		3.13		2.88

All values mean of 10 plants.
Species = *, drought = *, species X drought = *, ns = not significant, * = P ≤ 0.05; LSD = least significant difference.
− = no symptoms observed. In all cases, no wilting or leaf drop occurred in control plants.