Responses of Amorpha fruticosa seedling to drought and rewatering in arid and semi-arid environment

To determine the response of A. fruticosa to drought and rewatering, a greenhouse experiment was conducted maintaining desired soil water content following weighing method. Results showed that compensation effects occurred at different growth stages of A. fruticosa after rewatering, when the soil relative water content was ≥70%. Post-drought rewatering significantly triggered the compensatory improvement in plant height (19.49% and 7.23%), basal diameter (49.81% and 9.09%), leaf area (7.82% and 8.16%), root length (1.67% and 0.94%), root volume (10.86% and 11.67%) and dry matter content (26.32% and 12.29%) over control at initial and fast growth stages, respectively, under soil relative water content of 87.84%. Whereas, post-drought rewatering did not significantly affect the recovery of A. fruticosa at late growth stage, but 70% was the ideal soil relative water content for dry matter accumulation as compared to control.