Re: rooting plants from leaves

From: "Dr David Ross Constantine" <drc at globalnet.co.uk> on 1997.12.01 at 14:26:18(1672) I was interested in Kathy Upton's comments about regeneration from detached leaves. Someone on another listserv made a similar comment recently about the phenomenon in the non-aroid Rhododendron. I got quite interested in epiphyllous shoot formation when I was doing my PhD. In doing my literature search I came across the following paper; Hagemann, A., (1932) Untersuchungen an Blattstecklingen. Gartenbauwissenschaft 6, 69-195. Hagemann found that detachment was the only stimulus required to induce de novo shoot and/or root regeneration from leaves of 778 out of 1042 dicotyledenous species; 287 species formed shoots. Hagemann tried a few aroids and reported roots from 75% of detached leaves of Pothos auritus and from 100% of detached leaves of Zamioculcas zamiifolia. He also indicates that Pinellia tuberifera and Zamioculcas Loddigesii (sic) produce both roots and shoots. (This is an old paper; nomenclature has changed). Deni Bown (p 114) says of Zamioculcas zamiifolia that "as is quite common in succulent plants, but unknown elsewhere in Araceae, the leaflets can sprout into new plants and form tiny tubers at the base". It is also interesting to note that the bud-inducing properties of kinetin, the first cytokinin discovered in 1956, were applied horticulturally almost immediately in a similar non-tissue culture system; see Plummer, T. H. and Leopold, A. C., 1957. Chemical treatment for bud formation in Saintpaulia. Proc. J. Amer. hort. Sci. 70, 442-444 It may be that exogenous cytokinin will trigger shoot formation from detached leaves that do not otherwise respond. David Constantine +More drc@globalnet.co.uk

Note: this is a very old post, so no reply function is available.