ISOLATED PETALS – A USEFUL SYSTEM FOR STUDYING FLOWER SENESCENCE.

Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) flowers, whether cut one or four days after opening, wilted at the same time, between five and seven days after harvest.
Petals detached from flowers cut four days after opening and held in DI water senesced at the same time as the parent flowers, but petals detached from flowers one day after opening started to senesce much later, between nine and fourteen days after harvest.

The production of ethylene during the autocatalytic rise was much lower in petals detached from young flowers than in those taken from older flowers, and the induction of senescence by application of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) took longer in young petals than in older ones.

Carnation petals synthesize their own ACC as shown by the reduction of ethylene synthesis in petals treated with -aminoxyacetic acid (AOA), an inhibitor of ACC synthase.

II International Symposium on Post-harvest Physiology of Cut Flowers

Y. Mor, M. S. Reid

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1981.113.2