Iris versicolor (blue-flag iris) is a native aquatic plant that grows from Maine to Virginia. It is an important species of wetland regeneration and restoration. Unfortunately, seed germination seldom occurs in the wild. To address this problem, seeds of Iris versicolor were soaked with gibberellin acid (0, 500, 1000, and 1500 ppm) for 24 h after 120 days of cold treatment at 4 °C and then were randomly assigned to three germination temperatures (constant 21 °C; 24 °C/18 °C; 27C/15 °C) and placed in darkness. Germination rates for the three temperature treatments were 54.4% (21 °C), 96.5% (24 °C/18 °C), and 96.0% (27C/15 °C). Oscillating temperature treatments had significantly greater germination rate than constant temperature. Gibberellin acid had significant influence on germination rate; only the constant 21 °C was not favorable for germination. The germination rate was higher at 1000 than at 500 ppm or 1500 ppm or more. Germination occurred within 10 days under germination temperature treatments. All seedlings in petri dishes were successfully transplanted into growing flats.
et al. 2012 ; Maschinski et al. 1994 ; Moore and Kröger 2011 ) and CWs ( DeBusk et al. 1995 ; Polomski et al. 2007 ; Read et al. 2008 ). Initially, three plant species were selected: blue flag iris ( Iris versicolor ), lizard’s tail ( Saururus
Four wetland species, Canna flaccida (canna), Iris versicolor (iris), Spartinia alterniflora (smooth cord grass), and Juncus effusus (rush), were planted into five different trade gallon container types. The container types used were no hole pots, four holes at the bottom of the pot, four holes half way up the side wall of the pot, four holes three-quarters of the way up the side wall of the pot, and pot-in-pot which consisted of trade gallon growing pots with four holes at the bottom of the pot placed inside a full gallon socket pot with no holes. Canna visual shoot and root rating were highest for the pot-in-pot treatment. Rush pot-in-pot plants had the highest growth indices, visual shoot, and root ratings compared to the remaining four pot types. Shoot count for iris was highest for the pot-in-pot containers. Container hole position did influence growth of smooth cord grass.
Constructed wetlands are an effective, low-cost method of water treatment that may reduce agricultural pollutants from nursery runoff. It has been suggested that the expense of implementing such systems could be recovered by growing aquatic plants that could be sold to retail and wholesale markets. However, this demand could probably be satisfied through a few wetlands. It would be desirable if more traditional nursery crops could be incorporated into treatment wetlands. Several taxa of Cannas, Iris, and ornamental grasses are selected cultivars of wetland plants that have been used in treatment wetlands for decades. However little data exists on these cultivar's nutrient uptake rates and survivability in treatment wetlands. Nutrient uptake and growth rates of Canna × generalis cultivars `Aflame', `King Humbert', and `Pretoria', Glyceria maxima `Variegata', Iris pseudacorus, Iris versicolor, Phalaris arundinacea `Luteo-Picta', Pragmites australis `Variegata', and Spartina pectinata `Aureo-marginata' were compared to the widely used Typha latifolia. Single divisions of each were established in a constructed wetland and batch fed weekly a commercial fertilizer solution reconstituted to 100 ppm-N. Plants were harvested after 75 days and biomass and tissue nutrient content was determined. Mean biomass of Typha latifolia was 212 g/division and nitrogen and phosphorus accumulation was 4.5 and 0.8 g/division, respectively. The biomass of the other species ranged from 101 to 175 g/division and had total accumulation of nutrients ranging from 2.5 to 3.8 g nitrogen/division and 0.35 to 0.85 g phosphorus/division.
results in many Iris species ( Kim et al., 2009 ; Radojević et al., 1987 ; Reuther, 1977 ). However, Laublin et al. (1991) demonstrated that the SEs of I. pseudacorus , I. setosa , and I. versicolor did not form roots, despite the presence of a