Abstract:
A pot experiment was conducted at faculty of Technology, South Eastern
University of Sri Lanka in the net house from August to December, 2023.
The aim of the research was the investigation of leaf morphological and
anatomical characters of selected six rice varieties in the low country dry
zone. The performance of BG 360, BG 310, BG 403, BG 379-2, and BW 367
were compared with control variety AT 362. The experiment was laid out
with Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with five replications. The data
were recorded in the vegetative phase, started from 3rd to 13th Week After
Planting. The results revealed that showed considerable variations during the
experiment. Among the leaf morphological parameters, the highest number
of leaves was produced in BG-403 and BG 379-2 compared to the control
variety, leaf length and leaf width were found from control variety AT 362
which was statistically similar with BG 379-2 and BW 367 rice variety, and
the highest flag leaf length and width were recorded from BG 379-2 and BW
367 which was statistically similar with control variety. Meanwhile, the
anatomical features of tested rice varieties, the highest number of major and
minor veins per mm was observed from BG 360 and the highest number of
stomata was observed from BG 379-2 compared with control variety. The
results concluded that BG 379-2, BW 367, and BG 360 exhibit better leaf
morpho-anatomical performance among the tested rice varieties for low
country dry zone.
