<Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">In vitro</Emphasis> propagation of the ornamental bromeliad <Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Acanthostachys strobilacea</Emphasis> (Schult. f.) Klotzsch via nodal segments

Acanthostachys strobilacea (Schult. f.) Klotzsch is an ornamental species of Bromeliaceae that may show an elongated stem when cultivated in vitro. This work reports a micropropagation protocol for A. strobilacea using nodal segments. Seeds were placed in Murashige and Skoog’s medium with macronutrients diluted to 1/5. Nodal segments isolated from the stems of in vitro elongated plants were subcultured in the same medium and kept in different light intensities (14, 41, and 50 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹) or continuous darkness. Another group of nodes was subcultured according to the position in the mother seedling. The plants that showed the most stem elongation were those that were cultured in 14 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ or that came from isolated nodal segments in the median and basal regions of the mother plant. After 2 mo, all of the plants originating from the development of lateral buds were transferred to a greenhouse. Only those that were not elongated survived ex vitro and flowered after 1 yr.