Ozone and Sulfur Dioxide Mixtures Cause a PAN-Type Injury to Petunia

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Foliage of petunia [Petunia hybrida] plants exposed to a mixture of O3 and SO2 in a controlled environment developed a symptom that fits the description of classic peroxyacetylnitrate (PAN) injury. The undersurface of newly matured leaves became glazed, especially at the apex of the youngest susceptible leaf, at the middle of the intermediate-aged leaf and at the base of the oldest susceptible leaf. As with PAN, injury was more severe on a white-flowered cultivar than on a red-flowered one. In contrast to the result reported for PAN-fumigated plants, prior treatment with benomyl afforded some protection against injury from the mixture of O3 and SO2 in controlled fumigations. In a field study conducted in New Jersey [USA] in the summer of 1975, white petunia cultivars responded to ambient air pollution in a manner identical to that observed in controlled fumigations with the mixture of O3 and SO2. Petunia damage in the northeastern USA is probably a consequence of toxic levels of a mixture of O3 and SO2.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: