The effects of water availability were evaluated on the photosynthetic tissue anatomy in Aloe vera (L) Burm f. and its relationship with morphological, physiological parameters, and water use efficiency as a function of aerial biomass and gel production. Plants were subjected to four levels of water availability equivalent to 20% (T1), 15% (T2), 10% (T3), and 5% (T4) of the atmospheric evaporative demand. The plants exhibited anatomical, morphological, and physiological responses to the different watering treatments. The extreme treatments produced negative responses due to excess water in T1 and water deficit in T4. Treatments T2 and T3 elicited positive responses in cell characteristics and productivity. Anatomical and structural characteristics were closely linked to physiology. Increased stomata number was negatively related to leaf length, width, and thickness (r = −0.85, −0.81, and −0.59, respectively) and to biomass production (r = −0.84), and positively related to the increase of cuticle thickness (r = 0.78). Treatment T2 showed the maximum efficiency of water use for biomass production (24.6 g L −1), which was closely related to cell size (r = 0.68) and number of stomata (r = −0.70).

Yield under water stress (YS) is used as the main criterion in the selection of wheat varieties for dry Mediterranean environments. It has been proposed that selection of genotypes using YS assisted by morphological and physiological traits associated with YS is more efficient in selecting high yielding genotypes for dry environments. A study was carried out at the Antumapu Experiment Station of the University of Chile, located in Santiago, Chile (33° 40′S and 70° 38′ W). The objective was to evaluate the extent to which morpho physiological traits could explain YS. For this purpose, grain yield and yield components of 185 durum wheat genotypes from ICARDA (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas) and INIA (Chilean National Institute for Agricultural Research) were evaluated along with seed size and weight, days to heading (DH), glaucousness (GLAU), plant height (PH) and 13C discrimination (Δ). The design was an α-lattice with two replications, the genotypes were grown in two different water conditions (high and low irrigation) during two seasons (2011-2012/2012-2013). Grain weight (GW) was the only yield component with high H associated with YS, but it was not associated with yield under high irrigation (YI). The combination of YI with DH+GLAU+PH+Δ+GW obtained in LI environments explained a greater fraction of YS (38%) across years; these traits had lower genotype x environment interaction than YS, they also explained a higher proportion of yield under drought than YI. None of the traits studied could replace YS in selections for grain yield. It is concluded that these traits could aid in the selection of durum wheat subject to water stress, particularly in early generations.