ABSTRACT The environmental factors that affect the morphological characteristics of different genera of cacti are little known. The aim of this study therefore was to analyse the contribution of environmental variables to growth in cladodes and plant of forage cactus clones of the genera Nopalea and Opuntia. The data used in this study were obtained from an experiment conducted in Serra Talhada, Pernambuco, Brazil, between 2012 and 2013, where the clones 'IPA Sertânia' (Nopalea), 'Miúda' (Nopalea) and 'Orelha de Elefante Mexicana' (Opuntia) were submitted to different irrigation depths (2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 mm) and fixed irrigation intervals (7, 14 and 28 days). Morphological characteristics of the cladodes and plants and weather variables were obtained over... |