Morphological and Physiological Characterization of Sesbania genotypes

Background: Sesbania species are widely used in different agricultural systems providing green manure, forage, firewood, pulp, food, landscape decoration, control of soil erosion and soil improvement. The biomass yield and yield contributing descriptors of Sesbania depend on different physiological traits. Methods: An experiment was conducted at Bangladesh Agricultural University to find out the morphological and physiological variability among four Sesbania genotypes. Sesbania species, viz. S. bispinosa, S. cannabina, S. sesban and S. rostrata, were used as experimental materials. Seeds were sown in 2.5 m × 2.0 m plots to maintain 200 plants m-2 following randomized complete block design with three replications. Seed length and width, 1000-seed weight, germination percentage, vigour index, seedling length and biomass yield parameters were recorded. Different growth data were recorded and physiological descriptors were calculated at every 10 days intervals up to 60 days after sowing (DAS). Result: The results revealed that the highest value of plant height, number of leaflets pair leaf-1, leaf length and biomass yield were found in S. bispinosa and the lowest in S. sesban at 60 DAS. Sesbania sesban produced higher biomass and studied growth descriptors up to 20 DAS and thereafter declined, however, other three species produced higher biomass and studied growth descriptors from 30 to 60 DAS.