Inflorescence bulbils of tiger lily in vivo and bulbils culture in vitro

Abstract

The present study includes two experiments; the physiological and the biotechnological experiments. The physiological experiment was designed to investigate the most interesting rare natural phenomenon of the development of vegetative reproductive organs (bulbils) in the inflorescence of tiger lily. In the other hand, the biotechnological experiment was carried out to evaluate the regeneration potential of bulbils culture in vitro. In the first experiment, the plants of tiger lily Lilium lancifolium var. Flore Pleno which were grown in greenhouse showed that the Pseudo viviparous phenomenon at the end of flowering when vegetative bulbils were induced in the inflorescence. These bulbils as pseudo viviparous structures were precisely formed in place of flowers and along the floral stalks. The flower head was completely surrounded by the extensive numbers of these bulbils; some of them continued in growth and produced new shoots. The tissue culture experiment of tiger lily var. Flore Pleno was carried out using bulbils culture for eight weeks of culture in vitro. The results indicate that the bulbils was shown to be a good choice as explants for micropropagation but the potential of these bulbils to produce bulblets, shoots and roots was greatly influenced by the concentrations of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and benzyl aminopurine (BA) in culture. However, the concentration of 1 mg/l BA combined with 0.1 mg/l NAA was shown to be the optimum for micropropagation of tiger lily var. Flore Pleno.

Key words: Bulbils, pseudo viviparous phenomenon, tiger lily, in vitro, micropropagation, growth regulators.