Water Conservation in Kalanchoe blossfeldiana in Relation to Carbon Dioxide Dark Fixation

Abstract

The succulent Kalanchoe (4,17,18). During preliminary studies on CO2 dark fixation, we observed that plants treated on short photoperiods in complete nutrient solution also required less frequent replenishment of solution than plants treated on long photoperiods. This suggested to us a conservation of water uptake by short day plants even with an abundant and continuous source of water available.The object of this study was to treat Tom Thumb plants in nutrient solution with contrasting photoperiods and correlate the phenomenon of CO2 dark fixation with the tendency for water conservation. Where such fixation is observed, we assumed it to be directly related to CAM as determined in previous studies (3,5,13,15,17).