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- Author or Editor: Richard A. Criley x
- HortScience x
As part of a research study on growth and flower production of 20 commercial heliconia cultivars, plants were established at the Waimanalo Research Farm (Oahu) of the Univ. of Hawaii in July 1999. This report focuses on Heliconia ×rauliniana. Five plants in 7.6 L pots were planted at spacings of 2.5 M in row, with between row spacings of 3 M. Beginning a month later, newly emerged shoots were tagged every four weeks. At flowering, the shoots were harvested and leaf counts made. The information derived from the data include time frame from shoot emergence to flower, rate of shoot production, percentage of shoots from each tag date that flowered and the periodicity of flowering in a two year period. The range of times from shoot emergence to harvest was 208 to 450 days. In the first 12 months following planting, the average cumulative new shoot production since planting was 77 shoots per plant, while more than 58 inflorescences per plant were produced from the tagged stems for a 75% productivity rating. H. X rauliniana evidenced periodic flowering behavior, with peak flowering in the April to June period, that suggested it is a short-day plant for flower initiation.
The flowers of pakalana are initiated under long days (LD) at 18C or above. At 21 and 24C, inflorescence initiation occurs after 3 weeks of LD, and the clusters grow to 6 mm in another 2 weeks, but at 18C, about 12 weeks are required to achieve the 6-mm length. This length is critical, as a shorter stage often fails to develop further. From a length of 6 mm, clusters develop to anthesis in 3 to 4 weeks at 24C, 4 to 5 weeks at 21C, and 6 to 7 weeks at 18C. This work is important to the production of pakalana flowers for Hawaii's winter lei flower trade.
Abstract
Chloroethyl-trimethylammonium chloride (chlormequat) was the most effective of several growth retardants in retarding new growth of field-grown of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. without serious side effects. A reduction by one-third to one-half of non-treated growth occurred for 1000 and 3000 ppm (active ingredient), respectively. Over 3½ year period of repeated shearings plus spray applications, 1500 ppm was the most satisfactory following each shearing, while 3000 ppm could be used with alternate shearings. The growth retarding effect of 3000 ppm chlormequat was carried over from previous applications when sheared growth was untreated.
Abstract
Abscission of young fruits of the coconut palm occurred following sprays of (2-chloroethyl)phosphonic acid (ethephon) and methyl-2-chloro-9-hydroxyfluorene-9-carboxylate (chlorflurenol) at 2500 and 5000 ppm, but not if the inflorescence was sprayed prior to the time pistillate flowers were receptive. Fruits ranging in diam from 4 to 8 cm abscised the most readily, but occasionally maturing fruit up to 20 cm diam were affected.
Heliconia rostrata is a herbaceous-musoid sympodial rhizomatous plant that grows as clump. After three leaves are produced, each shoot of the clump may bear an inflorescence if it is induced by short days (SD). However, the relationship between shoot density and flowering has not been quantified. To evaluate the effects of the inductive period, number of shoots, and leaf removal on flowering, rhizomes were planted in 120 pots (8 L). One-third of the pots were planted with two rhizomes, while the remainder was planted with one. One-half of the pots with one rhizome were allowed to develop all their shoots for three generations, while in the remaining pots only one shoot per generation was allowed to grow. In addition, one-half of the plants in all the treatments were subjected to selective leaf removal. The plants were grown under long days (LD) >13 h in a glasshouse until four leaves were produced. Inductive SD was supplied to all the plants from 5:00 pm to 8:00 am. After 8 weeks of SD, one-half of the plants were given LD, while the other half continued under SD (conSD) until flowering. The highest percentage of flowering shoots (39% to 35%) was observed in plants under conSD; plants under SD-LD were 10% to 9%. The second generation of shoots showed the highest flowering (74% conSD and 21% SD-LD), followed by the first (62% conSD and 18% SD-LD), and third (31% conSD and 0% SD-LD) generations. Non-flowering shoots of the first generation were aborted or dead. Shoots of the third were still vegetative, since they had few leaves to be induced. Fewer flowers occurred in clumps allowed to develop all their shoots. Intact plants from rhizomes with one shoot per generation flowered more than the partially defoliated ones under conSD.
A new name for an old plant is not necessarily welcome in the horticultural trades or in plant identification classes, but some name changes have been in existence long enough that textbooks and trade publications should have caught up with them. The objective of this poster is to call attention to some of these changes for horticultural plant identification courses. Traditional references such as Hortus Third (1976) and Exotica 8 (Graf, 1976) have been superseded by the second edition of The Plant Book (Mabberly, 1997) and The Index of Garden Plants (Griffiths, 1994), while some recent works (The Tropical Look, Riffle, 1998) have chosen to retain old names. The taxonomic research underlying a new book, Tropical Garden Flora (Staples and Herbst, in press), based on the second edition of In Gardens of Hawaii (Neal, 1965), has produced an abundance of name changes. This poster will illustrate and report genera and species name changes that have occurred for selected ornamentals in the Acanthaceae, Agavaceae, Araceae, Araliaceae, Arecaceae, Commelinaceae, and Moraceae families plus a few others.
Seasonal flowering behavior of Heliconia wagneriana Petersen was found to be caused by short daylengths (SD) using artificial short days (8 to 9 hours) and long days as daylength extension or night break lighting with incandescent lamps. The natural time for flower initiation was estimated to be mid- to late October (11 hours 40 minutes to 11 hours 20 minutes) in Hawaii, and 120 to 150 days were required from the onset of inductive SD to inflorescence emergence. The results may be used to manipulate flower availability for flower markets.