Effect of Lead Contamination on Morphological Attributes and Biomass Allocation of Bambusa balcooa (Roxb.)

Lead contamination in the agricultural soil by anthropogenic activities, industrialization and modernization poses a great concern to human health. A pot experiment was completed to evaluate the effect of Pb concentrations (0, 150, 500, 1000, 1700 mg kg-1) of lead nitrate on Bambusa balcooa plantlets grown in earthen pots placed in a fenced enclosure. For each concentration, three replicates were taken and to reduce the heterogeneity in the results, pots were placed in randomized manner. Thereafter, plantlets were transplanted in the pots and grown in the natural condition, only rainfall was controlled by covering the fenced enclosure with polythene sheet. The result showed that a higher concentration of Pb caused a minimum increase in the number of culm (0%), nodes (25%), leaves (58.53%), length of internode (19.04%), plant height (32.89%) and leaf area (62.91%). Biomass of the plant ranged from 5.33± 0.57 to 37.33±6.42g and moisture content was found maximum in Pb 500 mg kg-1 (38.78%) throughout the experiment. Findings of the study indicates that B. balcooa can tolerate the elevated level of Pb toxicity and can be used for remediation purpose.