SUMMARY An experiment was conducted on a ALBAQUALF soil of the Vacacaí Mapping Unit located on the Campus of the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria during the 1986/87 growing season. The objective was to observe the conduct of the leaf area index of three irrigated rice varieties (EEA 406, BLUEBELLE and BR-IRGA 409) and with different morphological traits. The experimental design was a randomized block with five replications. Treatments were the three varieties. Variety EEA 406 had the highest values the leaf area and leaf area index (LAI), in all the growth stages, followed by varieties BLUEBELLE and BR-IRGA 409. The leaf size was the component that more affected leaf area and leaf area index, for the three varieties.
leaf area; area index; rice
