GROWTH ANALYSIS OF CHAMAECHRISTA-CHAMAECHRISTOIDES (LEGUMINOSAE) UNDER CONTRASTING NUTRIENT CONDITIONS

Seedlings of Chamaechrista chamaechristoides, a tropical sand dune col onizing species in the Gulf of Mexico, were used in a glasshouse exper iment to determine the growth responses to different nutrient supplies . The plants were grown for 140 days under constant and pulsed nutrien t conditions, in which the amount of nutrients added was the same, alt hough with differences in time of application. A functional growth ana lysis, with 5 harvests, revealed consistent differences among treatmen ts in biomass gain but not in relative growth rates. Root to shoot rat io was inflexible and independent of the nutrient conditions, values o btained for this parameter were always greater than one. No significan t differences in response were associated with nutrient pulse treatmen t.