Effects of Shading and External Mechanical Supporting on Morphological Plasticity of Climbing Plant Momordica Charantia

Through the method of shading and providing external mechanical support,the growth dynamics and morphological characters of herbaceous climbing plant Momordica charantia were studied .The results showed :(1)the growth of Momordica charantia had significant difference under different shading treatments,the poor light conditions decreased the chance for plants to increase modular numbers and accumulate biomass;(2)the plant formed few shoots ,thin laminas ,long and thin petioles and slender stems in poor light conditions ,and in these light conditions ,the plants showed stronger morphological plasticity than in rich light conditions;(3)the plant had stronger morphological plasticity in early growth period than in later growth period ;(4) the absence of external mechanical support had little effect on plant growth when climbing plant grew in rich light conditions.