ISHS Acta Horticulturae 167: II Symposium on Growth Regulators in Floriculture
STUDIES ON THE ORIGIN OF CHINESE FLORIST'S CHRYSANTHEMUM |
| Author: | C. Jun-yu |
| Abstract:
The florist's chrysanthemum, Dendranthema morifolium /Ramat./ Tzvel., is a world known flower, yet the problem of its origin has not been solved. After a brief survey of the history of the florist's chrysanthemum in China, as well as concise descriptions of the probable parental wild species, the author laid stress on introducing preliminary achievements in artificial creation of a new species—D. pekinense /Chen and Liang 1963 ; Chen and Liang 1964; Chen et al. 1981; Chen et al. 1982/, being a tetraploid /2n=36/ with intermediate characteristics between its maternal parent D. indicum var. acutum and paternal D. erubescens but with white, light pink, light yellow and yellow semi-double flower heads. 3 Peking Daisy cultivars /D. pekinense/ were obtained during 1962 – 1963, and 10 more cvs. /also 1 plant each/ in 1979 – 1980, all from F1 seedlings of D. indicum var. acutum X D. erubescens, among many other offsprings of different specific hybrids. Beginning from the autumn of 1981, artificial cross pollinations were made mostly between D. zawadskii and indicum slong the slopes of Huang Shan /Yellow Mountain/, Anhui Province with alt. 1450–1680 m. The mother plants were potted and transplanted to Beijing, and seeds /achenes in reality/ to be harvested on them during the winter in cool greenhouse. 19 hybrid plants from D. zawadskii X D. indicum show intermediate stem and leaf characteristics. F1 plants in bloom during the coming autumn will probably throw new light on solving the origin problem. Further investigation projects, including cross combinations with D. vestitum as one of the hybridization parents, also including some cytological observations with chromosomes of the parental wild species as well as those of the F1 hybrids are suggested. | |
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