Abstract

Chlorophyll is essential for photosynthesis. It serves two primary functions which is to absorb light and transfer that light energy into chemical energy. This study assessed the chlorophyll content of Entandrophragma angolense seedlings under different light intensities (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) and soil textural classes (clay, sandyloam, sandy, loamysand and loamy). The study was conducted in a 4 X 5 factorial experiment in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Interactions of light intensity and soil textural classes showed that leaves of E. angolense seedlings placed under 50% light intensity grown with sandy soil had the highest chlorophyll a content of 26.4mg/l while leaves of seedlings placed under 50% light intensity grown with clay soil had the least chlorophyll content of 14.23mg/l. Interaction of light intensity and soil textural classes showed that leaf of E. angolense seedlings placed under 25% light intensity grown with clay soil had the highest chlorophyll b content of 68.82mg/l while leaves of seedlings placed under 25% light intensity grown with sandy soil had the least chlorophyll b content of 9.13mg/l. This implies that E. angolense doesn’t make changes in morphological characteristics due to effect of light intensities and soil texture change in physiological characteristics such as biochemical change and example is amount of chlorophyll a and b leaf.

Key Words: E. angolense, Light intensity, Chlorophyll, Soil textural classes, Seedlings