Comparación de tres leguminosas arbóreas sembradas en un sustrato alcalino durante el período de aviveramiento. I. Variables morfoestructurales.

A trial was conducted in the Trujillo state, Venezuela, in order to evaluate the morphostructural performance of Albizia lebbeck, Leucaena leucocephala (Trujillo ecotype) and Erythrina fusca under nursery conditions. A completely randomized design was used for repeated measurements in time and ten replications per species. The studied variables were: plant height; stem and branch diameter; number of leaves, branches, roots and total nodules; and branch and root length. At the end of the evaluation (18 weeks) no significant differences were observed between L. leucocephala and E. fusca in plant height (45,2 and 51,0 cm), stem diameter (0,65 and 0,78 cm), number of leaves (43 and 45) and branches (17 and 18) and root length (32,1 and 36,5 cm). A. lebbeck only stood out for the number of roots (61) and average total nodules (6). The results allow concluding that with the utilization of an alkaline substratum in nursery, L. leucocephala and E. fusca showed a similar aerial morphostructural performance and higher than that of A. lebbeck; while albizia showed better results in root morphostructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]