Micropropagation of Crinum 'Ellen Bosanquet' by tri-scales

Crinum lilies (Crinum spp. L.) are tropical and sub-tropical bulbous plants with excellent potential for southern US landscapes. Unfortunately, the mo re desirable crinum cultivars are slow and expensive to propagate by tradit ional offsets. The objective of this research was to develop reliable proce dures for multiplying Crinum 'Ellen Bosanquet' by tissue culture. A sterili zation procedure for cleaning explants was developed in which bulb chips co ntaining a basal plate were submersed and agitated in 0.525% hypochlorite f or 1 h. For shoot formation, tri-scales (three scales attached to a section of the basal plate) were used as the explant source and grown on MS-based media containing five levels of benzyladenine (BA) (0-22.2 mu M) and five l evels of naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) (0-5.3 mu M) The greatest shoot forma tion was obtained from the highest level of BA (22.2 mu M) without NAA. In a subsequent experiment, explants were cultured for 4 months on media conta ining 35.5-88.8 mu M BA, and then transferred to hormone-fret media for 3 m onths. BA at 35.5 mu M stimulated optimal shoot (8.4) and bulblet (2.8) for mation. Plantlets were successfully acclimatized and rooted ex vitro. (C) 1 999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.