FLOWER INITIATION IN TOTAL DARKNESS IN A QUANTITATIVE SHORT DAY PLANT, FAGOPYRUM ESCULENTUM MOENCH

The flowering behavior of two cultural varieties of Fagopyrumesculentum Moench aseptically cultured in total darkness wasstudied. The effect on the flower initiation of some chemicalsubstances added to sterilized dry seeds was also investigated.Low temperature was found to be more suitable for flower initiationin buckwheat plants. 2-Thiouracil promoted flower initiationat high temperature in total darkness and inhibited it at anytemperatures examined under light conditions. Sucrose promotedflower initiation at higher temperatures than 15. Lithium chlorideand peptone inhibited flower initiation only at high temperature.Indoleacetic acid, gibberellin and kinetin had no effect onflower initiation in total darkness. It is postulated that in the flowering response the primaryreaction may be connected with the metabolism of sucrose andribonucleic acid. (Received September 21, 1964; )