In southern England, Linaria vulgaris (common yellow toadflax) suffers from high rates of nectar robbery by bumblebees. In a wild population of L. vulgaris we found that 96 % of open flowers were robbed. Five species of bumblebee were observed foraging on these flowers, although short-tongued species (Bombus lapidarius, B. lucorum and B. terrestris) robbed nectar whilst longer-tongued ones beha...

Commercially available amino acids mixtures have several advantages such as enhancing assimilation of fertilizer, facilitating uptake of water and nutrients and improving photosynthesis of plants. To investigate the response of gerbera (Gerbera jamesonni L.) flowers ‘Saltino’ to foliar application of a mixture of 19 essential amino acids (0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 mg L-1) and ammonium nitrate (200 mg...

the effects of sodium chloride (nacl) salinity (control; canal water with 0.4 ds m-1), 2.5 dsm-1, 5.0 ds m-1, 7.5 ds m-1 and 10.0 ds m-1, respectively) developed after 6 weeks of pruning (beginning of study) on plant growth, flowering and quality of three cut rose (rosa hybrida l.) cultivars viz. ‘kardinal’, ‘angelique’ and ‘gold medal’ were studied to achieve better management, quality product...

Almond tree yield is a function of the number of flowers on a tree and the percentage of flowers that set fruit. Almonds are borne on spurs (short proleptic shoots that can have both leaves and flowers). Almond tree spur dynamics research has documented that previous year spur leaf area is a predictive parameter for year-to-year spur survival, spur flowering and to a lesser extent spur fruiting...

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of paclobutrazol as an anti-gibberellin on some morpho-physiological characteristics of Petunia × grandiflora ‘Bravo Blue’, and determine the optimum concentration of paclobutrazol for drought resistance in this plant. The experiment was carried out as factorial based on completely randomized design with three replications in greenhouse. T...

Bilateral symmetry has evolved from radial symmetry in several floral lineages, and multiple hypotheses have been proposed to account for the success of this floral plan. One of these hypotheses posits that bilateral symmetry (or, more generally, a reduced number of planes of floral symmetry) allows for more precise pollen placement on pollinators. Greater precision would maximize the efficacy ...

Aquilegia `Rose-White' flowered from seed in about five months without vernalization. GA4/7 treatment increased stem height, induced earlier flowering, and increased the number of flowers/ plant. Each of these responses, however, was dependent upon both rate (10, 25, or 50 ppm) and timing of application (4-, 8-, or 12-leaf stage). Treatment at the 4-leaf stage resulted in earlier flowering at a...

The pollination of Passiflora coccinea by the hummingbird Phaethornis superciliosus was studied in Central Amazon, Brazil. We hypothesized that a greater nectar secretion rate (NSR) increases the pollination success of single flowers through Ph. superciliosus visiting behavior. For control flowers, NSR was an increasing function of flower base diameter (FBD). The total number of Ph. supercilios...