The influence of the epidermis on the drying rates of red clover leaf petioles and stems and of Italian ryegrass stems at low water contents

Previous results with red clover ( Trifolium pratense ) leaflets, leaf petioles and stems indicated that the epidermis continued to impose a barrier to water loss at low water contents. Further experiments with red clover leaf petioles and stems suggest that cuticular wax is the epidermal component concerned and that treatments which remove or merely modify this will also increase drying rate. However, when treatments to reduce epidermal resistance were applied to pseudostems and flowering stems of Italian ryegrass ( Lolium multiflorum ) the initial increase in drying rate produced was not sustained at low water contents. The pseudostems consisted of three layers of leaf material rolled one within the other and the true flowering stems were surrounded by one leaf sheath. Their pattern of response to treatments suggested that these affected only the outer sheath, which produced an initial acceleration in drying rate, but that this was not sustained after the outer sheath was dry because the lower untreated layers dried in a similar way to untreated controls. The results suggest the possibility of devising practical treatments to increase drying rate at low water contents with crops containing a high proportion of leaf or stem not surrounded by leaf sheath. Devising such treatments for crops with a high proportion of grass pseudostem or flowering stem surrounded by leaf sheath will be considerably more difficult.