SUMMARYThree experiments using soil-grown Lolium perenne plants were performed in order to investigate the effects of a gradually increasing drought stress on the death of root cells and the growth of lateral roots. Water potentials of -2 to -10 MPa caused death of the root cortex, but death of root tips occurred only at soil water potentials helow -10 MPa. Low soil water potentials promoted lateral root initiation and elongation, the total length of lateral roots being between three and five times that of control plants. On rewetting severely droughted plants, root growth continued by elongation of existing, previously initiated, lateral roots.
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SUMMARY(1) Mature Lolium perenne plants grown in soil were subjected to gradually increasing drought, and their uptake of phosphorus was determined during and after the drought.(2) Relatively mild drought (soil matric potentials -06 to -08 MPa) stopped phosphorus uptake, probably because phosphorus in the drying soil became unavailable.(3) After drought, the rates of uptake of phosphorus and of applied 32p from rewetted soil were reduced.(4) Some recovery in rate of phosphorus uptake occurred two to three weeks after rewetting.(5) The reduction in 32p uptake following drought was approximately the same whether the plants were mycorrhizal or not.(6) The control of the reduced uptake was located in the root. * Present address: 37 Staunton Road, Oxford OX3 7TJ.
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