investigation of morphological changes and nebkha formation in capparis deciduas and c. spinosa in arid lands

this study aimed to investigate morphological changes of capparis deciduas and c. spinosa and their effects on nebkha formation. in order to examine the morphological changes of these plants, nine c. spinosa nebkhas of varying ages were randomly selected and size and number of adventitious roots, number of shoot and buds were counted. results showed that the dead and green parts of c. spinosa in nebkha were significantly more than control plants. these showed that nebkha in c. spinosa stimulated growth by increasing bud and shoot at first and then there was a steady mortality when the volume of nebkhas increased. in c. deciduas, nebkha caused stimulation of adventitious roots in buried shoots. increasing nebkha volume did not increased the number of shoots and buds in c. decidua. control plants did not produce adventitious roots. formation of nebkha in c. decidua happened in two ways. in the first, c. decidua plants in middle age produced root stock in base of stems. root stocks continued to grow, trap sand, and form nebkha. root stock in nebkha produced adventitious root. in consecutive years root stocks continued to grow, trap sand, and form larger nebkha. in contrast, growth of main stems stopped and they were finally dried. c. decidua also formed nebkha like c. spinosa in the second way. it is concluded that c. decidua stimulated better adaptive morphological changes compared to c. spinosa in facing nebkh formation.