JOURNAL OF ORNAMENTAL PLANTS (JOURNAL OF ORNAMENTAL AND HORTICULTURAL PLANTS)
Year:2015 | Volume:5 | Issue:4|Papers Count:7

Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) is one of the most widely used turfgrasses for home lawns, golf courses, parks, and athletic fields in temperate climates. Oxidative stress caused by drought stress is a major limiting factor for grass cultivation in arid and semi-arid regions. The objective of this study was to investigate whether Prohexadione-Calcium (Pro-Ca) may play a role in promoting drought tolerance in kentucky bluegrass. Pro-Ca was exogenously applied as a foliar spray at the rate of 0, 7.5, 15 or 25 mg a.i./m2 to well established kentucky bluegrass under wellwatered (100 of field capacity) or drought-stressed (70 and 40% of field capacity) conditions. The effect of Pro-Ca on the growth physiology, drought stress response, antioxidant activity, and lipid peroxidation of kentucky bluegrass exposed to drought stress was measured during 28 days at 7 days interval. Pro-Ca treated kentucky bluegrass exposed to drought stress had higher relative water content (RWC) and turf quality, and lower electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde (MDA) content as membrane integrity indicators, compared with untreated plants. Pro-Ca application significantly increased the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and catalase (CAT) activities under well-watered and drought conditions, but this increase is more evident in drought stressed plants. Pro- Ca application at 15 mg/m2 was found to be more effective in alleviating drought stress damage in kentucky bluegrass. The results from this study suggest that Pro-Ca enhanced drought stress tolerance in kentucky bluegrass by maintaining higher RWC and membrane stability.

Gerbera cut flowers is one of the important and popular cut flowers in the world that regardless of increasing production of this plant in Iran, the duration of its life is short due to rapid wilting petals and bending neck of flower. To increase vase life of gerbera cut flowers cv. ‘Alain Ducasse’, the essences of Eucalyptus and Rosa damascena, the combination of these two essences at a concentration of 200 mg L-1 with 4% sucrose and only 4% sucrose were used as treatment and distilled water was used as control treatment. In current study, the characters of vase life, wet weight, total soluble solids, solution uptake and bent neck were examined. Maximum and minimum of vase life were achieved in Eucalyptus essence treatment (12.33 days) and control (7 days), respectively. Although, Rosa damascena essence and its combination with Eucalyptus essence also increased the vase life. The maximum fresh weight and solution uptake was obtained treated with Eucalyptus oil. The maximum fresh weight and absorption of solution were obtained in treatment with Eucalyptus essence. The maximum amount of soluble solids was obtained in the treatment of sucrose. In addition, control treatment has the maximum bent neck. The overall results showed that the use of Eucalyptus and Rosa damascena essence in combination with sucrose can be used as a preservative solution of gerbera cut flowers.

This study carried out based on a randomized completely design with 10 treatments geranium, eucalyptus and myrtus extraction, in 3 levels (2, 6 and 10 ml in 600 ml of distilled water) and control (distilled water) with 3 replications in 30 plots and each plot with 4 cut flowers. In this experiment traits such as vase life, water absorbtion, fresh weight, dry matter percent, petal protein content, petal carotenoids, leaf chlorophyll content, lipid peroxidation (MDA), SOD and POD enzymes activity and bacterial population were measured. The results showed that 2 ml myrtus the per 600 ml was the longest vase life compared to control (9.74 days) increased the vase life of 5.99 days. The highest bacterial population was observed in control plants. Also, the lowest MDA was found in 2 ml myrtus oil.

Thrips specimens were collected in the year 2014 on different ornamental plants from Mahallat (Markazi Province), Iran. In this study, 11 species in six genera and three different families of Thysanoptera were collected and identified. The scientific names of thrips species are as follow: Melanthrips knechteli, M.pallidior, Frankliniella intonsa, F. occidentalis, Microcephalothrips abdominalis, Tenothrips discolor, T. latoides, Thrips meridionalis, T. nigropilosus, T. tabaci, and Haplothrips reuteri. Among them, seven species are newly recorded for the fauna of Markazi Province. A high number of two harmful thrips, Thrips tabaci and Frankliniella occidentalis were found in all of flowers and ornamental plants. An identification key for phytophagous thrips is also given.

Araucaria excelsa L. of Araucariaceae family is a beautiful conifer which has a high economic importance in the flower industry. A factorial experiment based on randomized completely block design with two factors: 1. Irrigation intervals in 2, 4 and 6 days (I1, I2 and I3) and 2. The growth bed in pots 3 L included M1 (100% v/v cocopeat), M2 (100% municipal waste compost), M3 (100% vermicompost), M4 (25% cocopeat+25% perlite+25% soil+25% municipal waste compost), M5 (25% cocopeat+25% vermicompost +25 % soil+25% perlite) and M6 (25% vermicompost+25% municipal waste compost+25 % perlite+25% soil) was conducted with 18 treatments in three replications. Traits that were measured in this experiment included height of the crown, number of lateral shoot, branches distance, number of branches, length of lateral shoot, fresh weight of root and shoot, total fresh weight, dry weight of root and shoot, total dry weight. The results showed that the growth indices increased in 100% vermicompost. The treatment I1M3 was the best treatment in the growth of plant. The 100% vermicompost bed had a better response to 6 days irrigation than in the other beds, but it was observed a considerable difference in the growth indices between 6 days and 2 days periods of irrigation.

Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) is one of the most important cut flowers in the world. The majority of the carnation cultivars are sensitive to ethylene which affected the physiological and biochemical postharvest characteristics of these flowers. Applying inhibitors of biosynthesis and action of ethylene is important factor to protect the display quality and extend postharvest life. In order to evaluate the effects of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and ethylene on antioxidant enzymes activity of cut carnation cv. Fortune and subsequently on extending the vase life, this experiment was designed in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 3 replications. Carnation cut flowers were firstly treated with 1-MCP at concentrations of 0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5 ml/l for 24 h and subsequently exposed to ethylene (1 ml/l) for 16 h. Data were analyzed using MSTAT-C statistical software and means were compared based on Least Significant Differences (LSD) test (p<0.01). Our results showed that 1-MCP treatment had significant effects on vase life and biochemical characteristics like contents of leaf chlorophyll, petal anthocyanin, petal cell membrane stability and antioxidant enzymes activity such as catalase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase. The highest vase life and cell membrane stability were appeared in 1.5 ml/l 1-MCP which was significantly higher than 0 and 0.5 ml/l, although there was no significant difference with 1 ml. The highest chlorophyll and anthocyanin contents were also measured under 1.5 ml/l 1-MCP which was significantly higher than other treatments. The highest and lowest catalase and peroxidase activity were related to 1 and 0 ml/l 1-MCP, respectively. The highest and lowest superoxide dismutase activity was observed in 1.5 and 0 ml/l 1-MCP. In conclusion, application of 1-MCP improved and delayed the onset of senescence symptoms resulted in extending the vase life of cut carnation cv. Fortune.

Plants re-emit a substantial fraction of their assimilated carbon into the atmosphere as biogenic volatile organic compound. According to the presence of relatively high amount of methanol in herbal distillates, finding different concentrations of ethanol in such drinks is expectable, as several studies appeared that produced ethanol by plants emits into the atmosphere as do methanol. In this study, ethanol content of 30 industrial herbal distillates made by three different companies was measured. For this purpose, some solutions with concentration of 10000 mg L-1 were prepared from ethanol and methanol separately as original and internal standard sources that in continue, different concentrations of standards were prepared from ethanol solution and after it, 50 mL methanol solution was added to all of the standards and samples as internal standard and then, all of them were examined with GC. The obtained results indicated that some of the herbal distillates contain ethanol. Maximum and minimum amount of ethanol existed in Rosa damascena L., (rose water) with mean value 96.4 mg L-1 and Salix aegyptiaca L., distillate (only one sample had 15.5 mg L-1 and in two other samples were not seen) respectively, while most of the examined samples had no ethanol. Presence of ethanol in some of the examined samples showed that further study is necessary to achieve correct information about this subject.