Flowering of Aeschynanthus `Koral'

Abstract

Aeschynanthus `Koral' plants were grown in photoperiods of 8 to 14 hours (8 hours of natural daylight plus 0 to 6 hours of incandescent light of 3 μmol·m-2s-1) beginning January, March, or June. The number of weeks to anthesis and the number of leaves on flowering shoots were not affected by photoperiod but differed based on when treatments commenced. Flowering was inhibited, regardless of photoperiod, when the daily temperature differential was larger than 10C. To study the interaction of photoperiod and temperature, Aeschynanthus `Koral' plants were grown under photoperiods of 12 or 24 hours (daylight fluorescent lamps at 4.3 mol·m-2·day-1) at 18 or 24C. After 8 weeks, plants grown at 18C had fewer nodes before the first flower bud than plants grown at 24C. Aeschynanthus `Koral' was day-neutral at 18C, but responded as a long-day plant at 24C.