Quantitative and qualitative differences in morphological traits of freshwater ornamental aquatic plant water wisteria, Hygrophila difformis under different organic substrate
Sachin Onkar Khairnar and Vaneet Inder Kaur
The field study was conducted to investigate the quantitative and qualitative differences in morphological traits of freshwater ornamental aquatic plant Water wisteria, Hygrophila difformis under different organic substrate in mud pots of 3.5 liter capacity for 5 months under controlled environmental conditions. Results showed that maximum biomass, plant length, number of leaf and runners were observed in the treatments which contain high available nitrogen. Further during the study it was confirmed that water wisteria is a good model to study heterophylly, as leaves in all treatments from pinnately veined shape changed to pinnately lobed in nature. No mortality or plant deformity was observed in any treatments during the experiment. It can be concluded that the application of cattle manure at the rate of 2% with soil/sand (2:1) mixture is good for culture and propagation of ornamental aquatic plant, water wisteria as it is easily available at cheaper price in local market compare to other manures.