Modeling the Growth of Urtica urens Growing in Polluted and Unpolluted Regions

A random sample of 563 individual plants of Urtica urens growing in polluted and unpolluted areas were collected to determine the effects of air pollutants on the growth parameters of this medicinally important plant using Von Bertalanfi, Gompertz and Richard`s growth models. The parameters of the three growth models were calculated for plants growing in the polluted and unpolluted areas using plant height, petiole length and leaf weight as the growth determining factors. There were differences in the growth of plants growing in the unpolluted area from those growing in the polluted area in terms of growth period, maximum plant height, leaf weight and petiole length. These differences indicated that air pollutants reduced the height of plants and thus increased the growth period and increased the length of petioles and the weight of leaves of plants growing in polluted area.