RESULTS AND APPLICATION OF A SURVEY OF VIRUS INFECTION IN NARCISSUS STOCKS IN SCOTLAND

An attempt to find plants that can be used to produce virus-tested clones for eventual propagation by bulb growers was made by examining commercial stocks of several narcissus cultivars.

In a survey, 30 plants of each of several stocks of 8 cultivars were tested by inoculating their sap to Chenopodium quinoa plants and examining it in the electron microscope.
Results indicate that the cvs. "Golden Harvest", "King Alfred" and "Rembrandt" are totally virus-infected but that some plants of "Carlton", "Sempre Avanti", "Corinthian" and "Fortune" seem free of infection by all previously described viruses.
Plants of "Dutch Master" were not all infected by any one virus and thus seems a good possibility of finding virus-free plants.
An apparently undescribed virus with isometric particles 30–35 nm in diameter was found in five cultivars.

Selected bulbs of four cultivars were propagated by a twin-scale method.
Details of the incidence of bulbil formation and of subsequent development are presented.

II International Symposium on Flower Bulbs

W.P. Mowat, J. Chambers

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1975.47.7