On the effects of shading upon the characters of tea leaf.: I morphological change in tea leaf.

Abstract

Several studies were performed from 1956 to 1960 to know the change of the characters of younger Tea leaf caused by various rate of shading of sunshine. 1) The surface area of the leaf was decreased with shading in many cases, but with 20% of full daylight intensity, it was increased occasionally. 2) The leaf thickness was remarkably decreased in proportion to the light intensity caused by shading. Among the leaf tissues, Spongy parenchyma was most remarkably affected by shading, followed by palisade parenchyma. The form and density of the cells in these tissues were changed also to some degree. 3) The leaf color became dark by shading because of the increase of chlorophyl quantity. 4) It required about one week for plants receiving 20% illumination and about two weeks for those receiving 30~50% illumination to cause morphological change of the leaf. But it was not changed with more than 60~70 % illumination for a month. 5) These changes were more remarkably caused in younger stage of Tea bud. © 1961, CROP SCIENCE SOCIETY OF JAPAN. All rights reserved.