INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE ON THE FLOWERING DATE OF ORNITHOGALUM THYRSOIDES JACQ.

Ornithogalum thyrsoides has a qualitative temperature requirement.
Initiation of the inflorescence can be retarded or advanced. by temperature manipulation.
According to the results of this study, there is a negative correlation between storage temperature and the developmental rate, with the result that the flowering date is retarded as the storage temperature increases.
Storage of the flower bulbs at 5C for 14 weeks resulted in the earliest flowering date.
With every 5C increase in storage temperature up to a maximum of 30C, the flowering date was progressively retarded by a number of days.
There are no meaningful statistical differences between the results of the 30C and 35C treatments.
The mechanism involved in inflorescence initiation and differentiation is probably a temperature controlled growth inhibitor.
This inhibitor does not only have an influence on the commencement of differentiation, but probably has an influence on the rate of differentiation as well.
The flowering date is the most important part of phenological dating.
This date can now be manipulated, without any detrimental effects on flowering characteristics.

II International Symposium on the Development of New Floricultural Crops

P.J. Jansen van Vuuren, L.C. Holtzhausen

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1993.337.21