Morphological characteristics of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) after being given elicitor salicylic acid.

Elicitors are compounds that can stimulate several types of plant resistance. Elicitors can activate genes that encode enzymes to synthesize primary, and secondary metabolites, plant growth, and development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the morphoanatomical characteristics of sweet potato plants treated with salicylic acid as an elicitor. The type of variety used is Cilembu. This study used a completely randomized design (CRD) with five replications. Treatment of salicylic acid (A): control (A0), salicylic acid 0.15 g/L (A1), salicylic acid 0.30 g/L(A2), and salicylic acid 0.45 g/L (A3), with five times of replication. Observations the highest morphoanatomical character was obtained in treatment A3 for the parameters of lamina length, namely 18.98 ± 0.53 Cm, lamina width 13.20 ± 0.45 Cm, internode length 15.41 ± 1.15 Cm, branch length 62.94 ± 6.75 Cm, number of branches 4.66 ± 0.58, caulis diameter 1.12 ± 0.13 Cm, petiole length 38.97 ± 0.61 Cm, petiole diameter 0.97 ± 0.06 Cm, lamina thickness 456.14 ± 8.12 µm, petiole cortex diameter 493.09 ± 3.87 µm, stomata diameter 6.21 ± 0.41µm. The highest mean number of leaves in treatment A2 was 27.33 ± 2.08. The application of salicylic acid can induce morphoanatomical characteristics of sweet potato plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]