Photothermal Responses of Flowering in Rice (Oryza sativa)

Durations from sowing to panicle emergence in 16 diverse genotypesof rice (Oryza sativa L.) were recorded in 13 different photothermalregimes, comprising constant and diurnally alternating temperaturesbetween 16 and 32 °C and photoperiods between 10.5 and 15.0h d^–1—all provided by controlled-environment growthcabinets. In 11.5 h days and at sub-optimal temperatures, relationsbetween the rate of progress towards panicle emergence and meantemperature were linear in all genotypes, and amongst thesethe base temperature at that photoperiod varied between 6.6and 11.9 °C. In most cases progress was most rapid at 24–26°C, i.e. the optimum temperature was much cooler than expectedfrom previously published values of times to panicle emergencein a less extensive range of photothermal regimes. Only in threecultivars was it warmer than 28 °C, and in these there weresufficient data to establish that relations between rates ofprogress to panicle emergence and photoperiod in the diurnallyalternating temperature regime of 28–20 °C are alsolinear. Also, the responses of these three cultivars provideno evidence of any interaction between the effects of photoperiodand temperature. We conclude, then, that the model in whichrate of development is a linear function of both temperatureand photoperiod with no interaction, which has been shown tobe common to many other species, also applies to rice. Differencesamong genotypes in relative sensitivity of rate of progresstowards panicle emergence to both temperature and to photoperiodwere considerable; japonica cultivars tended to be more sensitiveto temperature and less sensitive to photoperiod than indicacultivars. Four indica cultivars bred and selected at The InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines did not differ(P > 0.10) in their relations between rate of progress towardspanicle emergence and sub-optimal temperatures in a daylengthof 11.5 h, but the optimum temperature for cv. IR 36 was appreciablywarmer than that for the cvs IR 5, IR 8 and IR 42. Oryza sativa, rice, flowering, temperature, photoperiod, photothermal responses