Morphological Characteristics of maize (Zea Mays) along Altitudinal Gradient in Obudu Plateau, Cross River State Nigeria

Author(s): Okpiliya F. I., Oko P. E, Ayiri B. A

From all indications, there seem to be a very high level of interrelationship between plant growth and the altitude of any particular place. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the morphological characteristics of maize and the altitude where it was cultivated. Five grains of maize were planted on each of the altitudinal heights of 100m, 600m and 1200m above sea level. The height of the altitude was measured using the geographical positioning system. On growth, the maize stands were labelled A –E for the purpose of identification and monitoring in each of the altitudinal heights. The heights, size of stem and size of maize cobs were measured with tape, while the number of tarsals, leaves and cobs were counted for each maize stand. The morphological characteristics of maize were used to correlate with the altitude of the area where the maize were planted. The pearson product movement correlation analysis was used to test the hypothesis. At 0.05 level of significance the result indicated a negative correlation between the height, size, number of tarsals, number of leaves, number of cobs and sizes of cobs of maize and the height of the altitude. In other words, as the height of the altitude increases, the morphological characteristic of maize decreases.

Morphology, zea mays, altitude, gradient

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