Growth and physiological responses of three warm-season legumes to water stress

Novel drought-tolerant grain legumes like mothbean (Vigna acontifolia), tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius), and guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) may also serve as summer forages, and add resilience to agricultural systems in the Southern Great Plains (SGP). However, limited information on the comparative response of these species to different water regimes prevents identification of the most reliable option. This study was conducted to compare mothbean, tepary bean and guar for their vegetative growth and physiological responses to four different water regimes: 100% (control), and 75%, 50% and 25% of control, applied from 27 to 77 days after planting (DAP). Tepary bean showed the lowest stomatal conductance (gs) and photosynthetic rate (A), but also maintained the highest instantaneous water use efficiency (WUEi) among species at 0.06 and 0.042 m3 m−3 soil moisture levels. Despite maintaining higher A, rates of vegetative growth by guar and mothbean were lower than tepary bean due to their limited leaf sink activity. At final harvest (77 DAP), biomass yield of tepary bean was 38–60% and 41–56% greater than guar and mothbean, respectively, across water deficits. Tepary bean was the most drought-tolerant legume under greenhouse conditions, and hence future research should focus on evaluating this species in extensive production settings.