INFLUENCE OF SALINITY AND AERATION ON THE GROWTH OF Limnobium laevigatum (HUMB. & BONPL. EX WILLD.) HEINE

Limnobium laevigatum (Hydrocharitales Order, Hydrocharitaceae family) is a floating aquatic plant known to possess a high nutritional value, to be efficient for phytoremediation and as a carbon captor. In order to achieve large scale reproduction and to take advantage of the benefits that this species offers, it is fundamental to recognize best conditions that enable its propagation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of salinity and aeration on the growth of L. laevigatum under laboratory conditions. For this, an experiment was designed where different growth variables were evaluated (number of sprigs, total number of leaves, chlorotic leaves, dead leaves, root size, total wet weight, total dry weight, leaf area and relative growth rate-TCR) under different salinity concentrations (2.2, 2.9 and 3.7 dS/m, considered as level one, two and three, respectively) and aeration conditions (with and without aeration). The results showed that the highest values of the growth variables were obtained in the treatments without aeration and at level one of salinity, obtaining the highest TCR (0.0785 g·g^-1·d-1). These results suggest that, in order to implement a large-scale propagation system, it would not be necessary to include aeration systems and low salt nutritional solutions can be used.