Leaf anatomy and water potential in the coffee cultivars tolerance to water stress

Abstract

Coffee yield has a great importance to the international market with a 120 million 60-kilogram bags and in Brazil it produces 10 million of direct and indirect jobs. Water stress is one of the most important factors to the crop yield, and so, the selection of tolerant cultivars is of great importance in the places under water stress. In this work, 15 Coffea arabica cultivars were evaluated about the water status and leaf anatomy to indicate the most tolerant Cultivars under water stress. The Bourbon Amarelo and Catimor were the most efficient under water stress, because these varieties have thicker cuticle, more palicade parenchyma, bigger central bundle sheath, and higher stomatal density. So, these Cultivars can be more potentially more efficient to reduce the transpiratory rate, to improve the photosynthesis and photosynthates translocation under water stress, and these varieties can be more indicated under water stress against the other cultivars.