ABSTRACT

Investigations on the anatomical, histochemical and physiological features of eleven sugarcane cultivars (Umuariaga Local, BD96-OO1, BD96-01O, C062175, BD94-005, BD96-016, NCS-OO1, BD95-030, BD94-017, BD95-031 and Umudike Local) were examined. Analysis of the characters of the epidermis revealed the value of some foliar epidermal characters to the taxonomy of the sugarcane cultivars. These characters include occurrence and distribution of short cells, prickles, microhairs and papillae; variable shapes of subsidiary cells and variation in the stomatal index of both epidermides. Anatomically diagnostic features found in the leaf lamina, stem and root include variations in number of palisade layer and its non-continuous nature in some of the cultivars, occurrence of glandular macrohair on stem epidermis, variation in stellar number of the cultivars, presence of uniseriate cortical layer resembling the endodermis in the roots of all the cultivars. Calcium oxalate crystals were localized in different tissues of leaves, stems and roots of all the cultivars. Physiological studies on the sugarcane cultivars involved the evaluation of some growth and yield parameters including stalk height, stalk girth, number of internodes/stalk, number of leaves/stalk, sugar content, cane yield and sugar yield. Cane yield (t/ha) was significantly higher (p>O.05) in BD95-030 compared to other cultivars except in BD94-017, NCS-OO1, Umudike Local, BD96-016 and Umuariaga Local, while sugar yields were significantly higher(p>O.05) in BD95-030 and Umudike local. Cane yield showed highly significant (p>O.O1) positive correlation with stalk height and highly significant (p>O.O1) negative correlation with number of leaves at 10 months after planting (MAP). The result of these studies will be of immense value to the sugarcane growers and taxonomists in identification and selection of the cultivars.