L'Influenza Delle Condizioni Fotoperiodiche e Termiche Sull'Accrescimento e Riproduzione della Salvia Longistyla Benth

Summary

Observations on growth and development of Salvia longistyla Benth., in several photoperiodic and termoperiodic conditions, both natural and artificial, were performed. The conclusions of my work are the following

I° - It has been proved that Salvia longistyla is a typical short-day plant and that its critical point of reaction lies approssimately on the 14 hours, when the average night-temperature is about 18°C; the flowering does not succeed if the night-temperature is decidedly below 15°C.

II° - The plant' requires short-day conditions not only for the formation of the flower buds, but also for the subsequent development, i. e. the full bloom; consequently the plant belongs to Eguchi's S. S. class (short day-plant for both the manifestations).

III. - Under natural conditions, in our latitude, Salvia longistyla flowers only in Autumn, because only in this season we have suitable photoperiod and concomitantly suitable night-temperature. In Spring, though the day is short, the night-temperature is not sufficiently high; in Winter and in Spring, the flowering is possible only in a warm green-house, with a night-temperature of about 18°C. In orange green-houses Salvia longistyla can continue the flowering begun in Autumn; during Winter and Spring new blooms do not succeed, just because the night-temperature, in such green houses, is never sufficiently high.

IV. - We can obtain fruiting only by artificial pollination (lack of natural pollination agency).

V. - The basal branches do not flower even in optimal photo- and termoperiodical conditions (which allow apical flowering) on acount of a mechanism of correlative inhibition.

VI. - The elongation of the internodes is relatively inhibited at a very long photoperiod, differently from what we observe in most plants.

These prerogatives, verified in repeated experiments, are in perfect accordance with the characteristics of the ambient in which the plant is naturally diffused (Mexico). The altitude and latitude of the stations in which the plant has usually been found, have a short photoperiod all year long, and temperatures (also night-temperatures) costantly suitable for a good growth and bloom. The plants, in the natural ambient, are perennial and bushy. The pluri-annuality can be referred to the flowering inhibition of the lateral and basal branches, that takes place in a specimen and that keeps on for a long time, also after the full flowering of the principal axis. The basal shoots show a tendency to the vegetative growth, even though the external conditions are suitable to the flowering of the apical parts of the plant. Therefore we must attribute the pluriannuality of S. longistyla to this correlative flower-inhibiting mechanism.