Researchers discover new longer-living flower
May 5, 2005
Penn State researchers have discovered a new flower that lives longer than an ordinary one. Named Elegance Silver by the researchers, the plant could be the Superman of the flower world.
Elegance Silver is a Regal Pelargonium, a flower that is used as a flowering houseplant and belongs to the genus Pelargonium, the same genus as geraniums. It has a glistening white flower with two burgundy feathers on the top two petals. In terms of flower shape and size, Elegance Silver resembles geraniums. The major differences are the palette of flower colors, symmetry of petals and the highly serrated leaves of the regal.
"It's unique because of its floral longevity and physiological attributes," said Richard Craig, professor emeritus in the Department of Horticulture at Penn State. This super-flower is a result of almost 30 years of plant breeding.
Through hybridization and genetic selection, Craig was able to achieve this unique flower. Hybrids are produced when pollen from one flower is taken and used to pollinate another with different genetic qualities. This leads to the dominant traits of the two parents being passed on to a new plant. Researchers used forceps to extract the pollen from one parent by hand and used it to fertilize another parent.
"It's like a roll of the dice," Craig said. "You can only hope for the best when breeding regals. Sometimes you'll get lucky and breed the perfect plant, and sometimes the plant you breed will be useless.”
This time the dice rolled in Craig's favor. However, he would not have known about the plant's special longevity had he not cut some of Elegance Silver's flowers and placed them in a vase. He wanted to share the flower he bred with his grandchildren, who were visiting him from Chicago. Craig was surprised to see that the flowers were still in an acceptable condition after 14 days of being in the vase.
Elegance Silver is much less sensitive to ethylene compared to other regals, according to Hye-Ji Kim who conducted the physiological research as part of her dissertation. Small amounts of ethylene cause petals to separate and also to wilt. The reduced sensitivity to ethylene allows the flowers to retain their vitality for a much longer time. Elegance Silver later was found to produce many more flowers over an extended period of time than other regals.
"There are no other known regal cultivars that have both," added Craig.
The Penn State researcher introduced Elegance Silver into his breeding program after he discovered it was quite different from other plants. The original seedling was used to start a new group of plants.
The University applied for a plant patent for Elegance Silver filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Additional protection is being sought internationally. A license was given to Oglevee Ltd. of Connellsville, Pa., which has produced Penn State's other patented geraniums and regals for many years. The first plants will become available to flower growers in fall 2005 and to consumers next spring.
Source: Penn State
-
Volunteers Scrutinize 'Ten Most Wanted' Plants for Clues to Climate Change
Apr 20, 2010 |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
0
-
Gulf fritillary is back
Sep 24, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Our Amorphophallus is smaller: New plant species from Madagascar smells like roadkill
Feb 07, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
-
Flower power: How to get ahead in advertising
Feb 03, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Compromises between quantity and quality common in animals: do the same holds for plants, flowers?
Feb 02, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (30) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
More news stories
A frank discussion of the power law and linking correlation to causation
(PhysOrg.com) -- Michael Stumpf a mathematics professor at Imperial College in London, and Mason Porter a lecturer at Oxford have teamed together to write and publish a perspective piece in Science regarding the in ...
The question of life in the ancient world
Theres a general feeling that we dont get the Greeks ancient or modern. Many, including heads of state like Angela Merkel, visibly shake their head in exasperation, rightly or wrongly, at ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
26 minutes ago |
not rated yet |
0
Soccer -- the link between managers and captains
Soccer managers regard their captains as an extension of themselves, according to new research from Northumbria University, which could explain why Fabio Capello quit as England manager following the FA row ...
53 minutes ago |
not rated yet |
0
US workers are 'giving away the store,' costing firms billions
Nearly 70 percent of the nation's service employees give away free goods and services from hamburgers to cable TV costing companies billions of dollars a year, according to a groundbreaking study.
Other Sciences / Economics & Business
18 hours ago |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
8
Storm warning: Financial tsunami heading this way
In today's global village, national coffers are more interconnected than ever before. And as the current economic crisis has proven, a downturn in one country can travel in a wave across the globe, like a financial tsunami. ...
Other Sciences / Economics & Business
19 hours ago |
3 / 5 (2) |
7
New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission
Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. Theyre a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel such as an optical fiber o ...
Mars Science Laboratory computer issue resolved
(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers have found the root cause of a computer reset that occurred two months ago on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and have determined how to correct it.
Advanced power-grid model finds low-cost, low-carbon future in West
(PhysOrg.com) -- The least expensive way for the Western U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to help prevent the worst consequences of global warming is to replace coal with renewable and other ...
Small modular reactor design could be a 'SUPERSTAR'
(PhysOrg.com) -- Though most of today's nuclear reactors are cooled by water, we've long known that there are alternatives; in fact, the world's first nuclear-powered electricity in 1951 came from a reactor ...
High school students test best with 7 hours' rest
(Medical Xpress) -- Whether or not you know any high school students that actually get nine hours of sleep each night, thats what federal guidelines currently prescribe.
Study suggests girls can 'rewire' brains to ward off depression
(Medical Xpress) -- What if you could teach your brain to respond differently to things that make you feel sad, down or stressed out? What if doing that helped ward off depression?