Resumo

ANTOLINEZ-DELGADO, CARLOS ANDRÉS  e  RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ, NELSON. Phenotypic Plasticity in Lippia alba and Lippia origanoides (Verbenaceae): Response to Nitrogen Availability. Acta biol.Colomb. [online]. 2008, vol.13, n.1, pp.53-64. ISSN 0120-548X.

Here we present a comparative study of phenotypic plasticity in response to soil nitrogen availability in two perennial Lippia species that show different ecological breadth. Lippia alba occurs in soils whith low to high nitrogen concentrations, while Lippia origanoides is only found in soils whit low nitrogen concentrations. We hypothesized that the magnitude of phenotypic plasticity of these species could be correlated with their ecological breadth. Thirty five clones of L. alba and L. origanoides were putted randomly in three treatments with different nitrogen concentrations: 0.5, 2.5 and 5 mM. At 25, 35, 50 and 70 days five plants per treatment was harvested and the number of leaves, leaf area, leaf mass fraction, root mass fraction, root shoot, radical volume, root length, total mass and relative growth rate were evaluated. The results showed that both plants displayed high amounts of phenotypic plasticity in response to nitrogen availability. The reaction norms changed depending of the species and plant age. Contrary to our hypothesis we did not found a correlation between magnitude of phenotypic plasticity and ecological breath.

Palavras-chave : Lippia sp; nitrogen; ecological breath; ontogeny; phenotypic expression.

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