New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts
Breeding cut flower cultivars of Leptospermum
using interspecific hybridisation
R. BICKNELL
New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food
Research Limited
Private Bag 4704
Christchurch, New Zealand
Abstract Leptospermum scoparium Forst. has an ideal
form for a cut flower, but its use is limited by a short vase life. Flowers on
cut stems typically wilt within 4-6 days of harvest. A breeding programme was
initiated to develop cultivars with improved characteristics for commercial cut
flower production, focusing on increasing postharvest life. A survey was
conducted of 38 cultivars of
L. scoparium as well as 16 other species of
Leptospermum, 3 of the closely related genus
Kunzea, and 1
intergeneric hybrid between
L. scoparium and
K. sinclairii. The
vase lives of the
L. scoparium cultivars studied varied from 1 to 6
days, with a modal value of 4 days.
L. scoparium `Crimson Glory'
has been successfully hybridised to
L. rotundifolium `Jervis Bay'.
The F1 progeny of this cross lasted from 4 to 9 days in a vase with a modal
value of 6.5 days. Other heritable characters included differences in leaf and
flower dimensions and the accumulation of the blue anthocyanidin moiety
delphinidin in the petals.
Keywords anthocyanidins; interspecific hybrids;
Leptospermum scoparium; Leptospermum rotundifolium; vase life
New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 1995, Vol. 23:
415-421
0114-0671/95/2304-0415 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1995
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (501K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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