THE CONTROL OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN RED CLOVER (TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE L.): I. RECORDING AND ANALYSIS OF DEVELOPMENTAL PATTERNS IN MORPHOGENESIS

Abstract

A key is described that provides a simple method for recording the sequential distribution of all leaves, buds, and inflorescences visible on a primary stem. Numbers are assigned to nodes in a basipetal sequence with each flowering node as number 1.In the "first cycle of growth" of a primary bud the number of nodes on each lateral flowering shoot was found to be positively correlated with, and linearly related to, the number of the node at which each was borne. It was also found that both the number of buds, non-flowering and flowering shoots, [T], and the number of inflorescences, [I], were linearly related to primary node number. Indoleacetic acid (IAA), 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid (TIBA), and maleic hydrazide amine (MH), altered the amount of lateral bud and shoot growth but not the linear relationships.Attainment of "ripeness-to-flower" coincident with production of a systemic non-polar florigenic stimulus could result in the observed conformity to theoretically "expected node numbers for flowering" on all lateral shoots.Treatment with 800 p.p.m. MH caused abortion of inflorescences and hastened onset of the "second cycle of vegetative growth" through cessation of growth and differentiation of "first cycle" floral apices; virus infection has caused similar effects.