SUMMARY. The assessment of growth and yield parameters of wild vigna to to
different levels ofcadmium pollution has been investigated in this study. The
experimental setup consisted of three (3) treatments namely; 0, 2.5 and 5
ecological screening value (ESV) and parameters recorded were taken 84 days and
20 weeks namely; plant germination factors, plant yield, percentage chlorosis,
necrosis and senesced leaves, plant dry matter accumulation as well as plant
lifetime morphological changes. Cadmium concentration increased the percentage
of foliar chlorosis and necrosis (20.40) in older leaves than younger leaves (4.08)
respectively of TVNu-91 sown in 5 ESV cadmium soil and this eventually resulted
to an increase in percentage senesced leave with increasing cadmium concentration.
Leaf folding and curling symptoms were cadmium-associated in the intermediate
partition but same cannot be said for the young plant (YP). However, leaf curling
was reported as a prominent morphological feature in this study. With respect to
insect foraging, there was total absence of foraging in both control accessions and
cadmium polluted accessions. There was also a significant difference (P>0.05) in
the number of pods per plant as evidenced in TVNu-95 (5ESV) 5.67 when compared
to 14.07 in the control of TVNu-95. Thus, there was a gradual decrease with
increasing ecological screening value. Generally, there was significant difference
in the seed number per pods (P<0.01), seed weight per pods (P<0.01) plant yield
(P<0.01), and flower bud size (P<0.05). 20 weeks after sowing, plant dry matter
accumulation was reduced with increase in metal concentration. There was variability
in plant yield response to metal toxicity with a general decrease reported with increased
cadmium concentration. However, TVNu-93 had a better yield as compared to the
other studied accessions.