ISHS Acta Horticulturae 523: XXV International Horticultural Congress, Part 13: New and Specialized Crops and Products, Botanic Gardens and Human-Horticulture Relationship
MILLA BIFLORA CAV. - CORM'S MORPHOLOGY, FOLIATION, FLOWERING |
| Authors: | M.W. Borys, H. Leszczyñska-Borys, J.L. Galván |
| Keywords: | flower number, flowering stems, leaves number |
| Abstract:
The genus is represented by six species in Mexico. The most frequent species found is Milla biflora Cav. It succesfully survives the very dry and degraded soils due to extended dormancy and a corms cover of lignified tissues. It belongs to a group of plants of very attractive flowers and buds. The objective of this study was to get basic information upon the corm's potential production of flowering stems and flowers per stem. The corm is small, with a centrally located set of invisible buds covered with a dead tunic. It may bear a number of corm-buds located mostly upon the upper surface of the corm; these may finally separate from the mother corm in a few years time. Each corm-bud produces leaves and may produce flowering stems. The attributes studied were corm size (diameter, weight), leaf and flower number per stem, per corm or corm-bud. The study was conducted in randomly selected plants of two stands of wild plants and in the whole population of plants in the germplant collection. A wide variation was found in each of the variable. The flowering period ranged from July to October being modified by the year. The flower number varied from 1 to 12 per stem, with 55% of stems giving from 3 to 5 flowers. The stem's height varied from 10.5 to 91.5 cm. The number of scapes produced per corm varied from 1 to 20 (the highest value recorded in two years). The average relation of flowering stem to leaves per corm was 0.5 to 1.0, with the highest value 1:1. The variability found suggests the possibility to select types of horticultural interest. | |
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