The isolation of varied flower color plants by ovary culture of sectorial chimera of Gladiolus

A mutated sectorial chimeric flower color variant was obtained by gamma-ray irradiation on cormels in Gladiolus cv. Traveler. The variant had two flow er stalks in which the florets of one had pink perianths, whereas the flore ts of the other had pale pink perianths. Ovary culture was applied to the c himeric plant to isolate plants with a fixed flower color. Regenerated plan ts from ovaries of pink florets produced pink flowers; 35 plants (67.3%) ou t of 52 regenerated plants from pale pink florets produced pale pink flower s, whereas 17 plants (32.7%) reverted to the original pink color. None of t he pink or the pale pink plants regenerated had sectorial chimeras. No chan ge in flower color occurred among 63 vegetatively propagated plants obtaine d from pale pink plants. In conclusion, shoot regeneration from callus tiss ue of ovaries was effective in isolating plants of fixed flower color from sectorial chimera of Gladiolus cv. Traveler.