BIOLOGY OF CROCUS OLIVIERI SUBSP. OLIVIERI
BIOLOGY OF CROCUS OLIVIERI SUBSP. OLIVIERI
复制标题
DOI:
10.17660/actahortic.2004.650.7
复制
发表时间:
2004-05
影响因子:
0.6
通讯作者:
H. Vurdu;K. Güney;F. F. Çiçek-F.
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
H. Vurdu;K. Güney;F. F. Çiçek-F.
Phenological periods and morphological characteristics of Crocus olivieri subsp. olivieri have been determined by observations in the sampling area. The changes in morphometric characteristics of this species for a period of 5 months from flowering to leaf disappearing have been recorded. The corm germination is achieved in 50±18 days under indoor conditions. 1000 seed weight has been determined as 6.819 g and the viability of seeds ranged from 89 to 96 percent. Different seed germination procedures were tested. Among these, seeds kept in distilled water for 1-10 days showed to be the suitable for the seed germination. Germination of the seeds started 154-179 days after sowing. As a result, the cultivation of this species could be done commercially by using corms and seeds. INTRODUCTION Crocus species are members of Iridaceae family. The plants in this family are herbs with rhizomes, corms or bulbs (Davis, 1984). The family Iridaceae embraces about 60 genera and 1500 species. The genus Crocus embraces about 70 species distributed mostly in the Mediterranean Region (Warburg, 1957). In Turkey, there are about 32 species of this genus (Malyer, 1985). Among these species, Crocus olivieri Gay. (Figure 1) is distributed in western, northern, southern and Central Anatolia and Greece, southern Yugoslavia, southern Bulgaria, southeastern Romania and Albania. A well-known Crocus is C. sativus L. (Figure 2) that is cultivated on a small scale in Mediterranean and Asiatic countries. The plants in the genus Crocus have underground fleshy corms. Their corms are usually symmetrical and enclosed by several fibrous, membranous or coriaceous tunics. They have basal, grass-like, dark green leaves with whitish median stripe. On the lower surface of the leaves, there are two deep grooves on either site of flattish keel. Their leaves appear with flowers or after flower. Depending on the Crocus species, the flowers appear in spring or autumn. A plant may have one or several flowers. Each flower is on a short subterranean pedicel that is subtended by a membranous sheating prophyll. The flower has a membraneous bract. The perianth tube is long and narrow. The flower has six segments in two whorls. The style of the flower is three or more branched. Ovary of these plants is subterranean. The fruit is a capsule and they have numerous seeds with brownish or reddish color. Species of Crocus can be identified from each other by several features. The styles of the Crocus vary greatly from species to species. They can be dissected into three lobes or very finely dissected with numerous lobes. The character of corm tunic is another important identification feature. There are corm tunics with circular rings around the entire corm, with fibers that run parallel from top to bottom, with overlapping scales as shell, with finely or coarsely reticulate. Other characteristics that aid in the identification of species are appearance of foliage before or after flowering, number of leaves, the flower color, and the anther color (Bryan, 1989). Most Crocus species can be propagated either by annual replacement corms or by seeds. Due to sterility, a few species of Crocus are propagated solely by replacement corms (Negbi et al., 1989; Plessner et al., 1989), such as C. sativus (a triploid species) (Chichiricco, 1984; Ghaffari, 1985). Most of the Crocus species grow naturally in the fields between shrubs and grass or light woodlands (Huxley, 1975). Very limited numbers of Crocus species are being cultivated. These are mostly C. sativus, C. aureus and C. vernus. Proc. I IS on Saffron Eds: J.-A. Fernández & F. Abdullaev Acta Hort 650, ISHS 2004 72 The aim of this study was to examine the biological and morphological characteristics of C. olivieri in order to find out cultivation techniques for this plant. MATERIALS AND METHODS Description of Study Area The southern region of METU Campus in Ankara, Turkey, was selected as sampling area. The sample area is covered with Pinus nigra trees. C. olivieri grows between rows of pine trees in the forest where they can get the direct sunlight mostly at noon. Within the sampling area, the specific study areas were located on the basis of high population density of C. olivieri. Sampling Guidelines Since flowering ends in a short period of time, and leaves disappear during summer, labeling of the plants has a significant importance to relocate the sample plants in the field. The labeling procedure was carried out in early April 1992, when C. olivieri dominates the flora. The locations of plants on the study area were labeled by 2x2x40 cm sized sticks (Figure 3). The sticks were inserted western side of each plant with a 7 cm apart. Each stick was numbered. A total of 400 plants were labeled for the study (Figure 4). Data Collection on Phenology of the Species Changes in the growth and development of C. olivieri in a year around were observed. Phenological characteristics such as sprouting, leaf appearing, flowering, fruit maturation and leaf disappearing time of the sample plants were recorded monthly. These characteristics, as used in this study, are defined as follows. Sprouting time is the time at which corms were started to give bud. Leaf appearing time is the time at which leaf of the plant is seen on the ground. Flowering time is the time at which most of the plants in the field are flowering. Fruit maturation time is the time at which seeds were spread on the soil after opening of the capsule. Leaf disappearing time is the time at which most of the leaves become dry (Anonymous, 1992). Data Collection on Morphology Every month, 30 plants were collected from the sampling area and brought to the laboratory. On these collected samples, morphological characteristics were recorded and the morphometric characters were measured. Descriptions of these characters and their abbreviations are shown in Figure 5. The longer one of the two leaves and flowers of each plant is considered during leaf and flower length measurements. Morphological characteristics such as color and size of C. olivieri growing in the study area were also determined. In addition, 1000 seed weight was also determined. Corm Propagation Germination studies of corms were carried out in sand pots. 62 C. olivieri corms were stored and kept in nylon bags at 4 C for germination studies. Corms were planted at a depth of 10 cm, in rows 5 cm apart and at a distance of 5 cm within the rows in seven pots. 20 corms were planted in two sand pots in the laboratory immediately after collection from the field and watered regularly. Seeds Before the seed germination tests, the viability of seeds determined. The viability of C. olivieri seeds was tested by using two different methods. Biochemical Test (Tetrazolium Test) The tetrazolium test is a biochemical method in which viability of seeds is tested by the red color appearing when the seeds are soaked in 1 % 2,3,5 triphenyl tetrazolium