The Ecological Response of Medicinal Plant Watercress (Nasturtium officinale R. Br. ( Brassicaceae)) to Different Sources of Water in Different Times

Abstract

This study investigated the watercress (Nasturtium officinale) belongs to Brassicaceae grown at Reshen area where is located in Halabja -Iraqi Kurdistan Region, to investigate the effect of different sources of water in different collection times on the Phenotypic (morphological characters) and content of the chemical compounds of plants which studied which illustrate the comparative of minerals which exist in clear and polluted water and also exist in the vegetative and the root parts of collection of watercress (Nasturtium officinale), which are growing in this area. The results have shown; watercress obtained from clear water in both times are healthy more than polluted water. A large amount of nutrient variability were observed in measured traits, the measured traits showed significant variations across the two sources of water and plants collection time distribution and there were the significant difference in measured traits at two different sources of water chemically (i.e., Ca, N, and Fe).polluted water in two times (first and second times), caused increasing vegetative fresh weight and root, dry vegetative and root parts, branch number, plant height significantly. The result shows that plant from polluted water in second collection time had a better response than other treatments, but it's not healthy.Keywords: Brassicaceae, Clear and polluted water, Phenotypic, watercress, Halabja.