Breeding Leucospermum for improved horticultural characteristics, disease tolerance and cultivation in tropical climates

The objectives of the protea breeding program at the University of Hawaii include the development of Leucospermum hybrids with improved horticultural characteristics such as desirable floral, foliar, and plant structural characteristics; earliness to flower; an extended flowering season; long, slender, straight stems; slender leaves; and reduced leaf and stem pubescence.
Tolerance of root and foliar fungal diseases is an important objective.
Hybrids tolerant to tropical climatic conditions are desirable for Hawaii since low elevation lands formerly cultivated in pineapple or sugarcane are more readily available and affordable than high elevation lands where protea are traditionally grown. Leucospermum species in the taxonomic section Cardinistylus, including L. formosum, L. grandiflorum and L. reflexum convey some degree of warm temperature tolerance to their hybrids, such that some selections flower as well at low elevations as they do at 1000 m.
Data indicate that there is good potential for creating and selecting “Tropical pincushions” for use in resort and residential landscapes, for flowering potted plant production and for cropping cut flowers at low elevations in Hawaii and in the tropics.

XIV International Protea Research Symposium

K.W. Leonhardt

protea, pincushion, temperature tolerance, breeding, principal component analysis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2022.1347.7