The Effect of leaf surface character on the ability of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms. to transpire water

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of leaf surface character on the ability of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms.) to transpire water. This experiment was performed using a healthy and acclimatized water hyacinth collected from Sawangan, Depok area. Five individual plants with the same size (6 leaves per plant), leaf length (10.4 ± 0.8 cm), leaf width (7.8 ± 0.7 cm) and root length (24.8 ± 7.4 cm) were put in each 20 L plastic tank containing tap water and allowed to grow in a greenhouse for six days. The transpiration rate of each plant was measured using a weighing method every day. The number of stomata, stomatal density and stomatal index were measured; amount of water loss from the individual plant through transpiration was analyzed. Based on the results of the study, it was found that the lowest leaf surface area is correlated with the number of stomatal and transpiration rates in the individual measured plants.