HORTSCIENCE 47(9):1234–1240. 2012. 1970s, many more accessions were intro- duced from The Netherlands (Dilbar, 1992). There are no standardized morphophysio- A Study of Morphophysiological logical descriptors for anthurium available in the literature to characterize accessions of Descriptors of Cultivated Anthurium A. andraeanum Hort. or differentiate between them. Furthermore, the introduced acces- andraeanum Hort. sions have not been systematically evaluated for horticultural performance and adaptabil- Winston Elibox and Pathmanathan Umaharan1 ity under local conditions. This information Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, The University is critical for selecting parents for subse- of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, College Road, St. Augustine, Republic quent studies and for embarking on a breed- ing program. of Trinidad and Tobago The objective of the study was to deter- Additional index words. coefficient of variation, correlation, descriptors, frequency distribu- mine useful morphophysiological descriptors tion, index of differentiation, showiness, principal component analysis for horticultural characterization of cultivated anthurium accessions as well as to identify a Abstract. Sixteen morphophysiological parameters of horticultural importance were promising ideotype for breeding purposes. investigated in 82 anthurium accessions grown in the Caribbean. The spathe colors included red, pink, white, green, orange, purple, coral, and brown and obake types with Materials and Methods red, pink, and white spathe colors accounting for 63.4% of the accessions. There was wider variation in spadix color combinations than spathe color. There was wide variation Location. The experiment was conducted for the cut flower and leaf parameters evaluated with productivity and peduncle length in a commercial farm, Kairi Blooms Ltd., having the smallest and largest range, respectively. The frequency distributions were situated in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago. The skewed to the right for spathe length, spathe width, spathe size, spadix length, spadix location experiences two seasons: a dry sea- diameter, leaf width, leaf size, and productivity and was normal for leaf length, spadix son (January to May) and a wet season (June angle, peduncle length, petiole length, and spathe showiness. Accessions with wider leaves to December). The average relative humidity, had longer leaves and longer petioles; those with longer spathes had wider spathes; and temperature, and light intensity are 83%, those with longer peduncles had correspondingly longer petioles. Peduncle length also 27.7 °C, and 57 mmolÁm–2Ás–1, respectively. showed moderate, weak correlations with other leaf measurements and spathe param- Anthurium accessions and cultural con- eters, respectively. Spadix diameter showed moderate correlations with leaf parameters. ditions. Eighty-two anthurium accessions Spathe showiness showed moderate, weak correlations with spathe measurements and were evaluated at full maturity, between the productivity, respectively. Principal component analysis of the 13 quantitative param- ages of 3 and 5 years. The accessions were eters showed that the first three principal components explained 75% of the variation grown under standard growing conditions in in the accessions. Leaf length, leaf width, leaf size, petiole length, peduncle length, and shade houses (75% shade) on beds (22.9 m 3 spadix diameter; spathe length, spathe width, spathe size, and spathe showiness; and 1.2 m) of pulverized coconut husk at a spac- productivity loaded on the first, second, and third component, respectively. Hence, one leaf ingof45cm 3 40 cm. The plants were and one spathe size parameter, spathe showiness, petiole length, peduncle length, spadix irrigated once daily for 15 min by overhead length, spadix angle, spadix diameter, and productivity as well as spathe, spadix, peduncle, sprinklerirrigationinthedryseasonandas and petiole colors can be used as descriptors for anthurium. Based on these results and required in the wet season. market information, an Anthurium ideotype adapted to the humid tropics is described. The beds were fertilized with either triple superphosphate (Chemos GmBH, Regenstauf, Germany) or 12N–11P–13K (Norsk Hydro Anthurium is a neotropical genus (Croat, Anthurium is cultivated primarily for its Olje AB, NYBRO, Sweden) every month at 1988) belonging to the monocotyledonous showy cut flowers and glossy leaves, which a rate of 0.45 kg per bed. Urea (National family, Araceae, which includes more than are exported or sold locally. The cut flower Agro, Port of Spain, Trinidad) and diam- 100 genera and 1500 species (Higaki et al., comprises a spadix with over 300 spirally monium phosphate (Brenntag, Dominican 1994). Native species of anthurium occur from arranged minute flowers subtended by a Republic) were applied as necessary at northern Mexico through Central America and brightly colored modified leaf, the spathe arateof0.23kgperbed.ThepHofthe the Caribbean to southern Brazil (Kamemoto (Croat, 1988). Anthurium cut flowers are beds was maintained at 5.5 by regular liming and Kuehnle, 1996). Cultivated anthurium generally classified as standard-colored, obake (Limestone; TRINCARB, Port of Spain, belongs to only two (Calomystrium and Por- types, or patterned types (Kamemoto and Trinidad). Nematodes were controlled by phyrochitonium) of the 18 sections outlined Kuehnle, 1996). Standard types have a uni- application of Temik (Aldicarb, Shandong, by Kamemoto and Kuehnle (1996). Interspe- form color and may be red, pink, orange, China) every 6 months. cific hybridization between species of anthur- coral, white, green, or purple. Obake types are Phytosanitation was performed once a week ium belonging to the section, Calomystrium, bicolors with green at the lobes and another and the infected materials and weeds were has resulted in an anthurium species com- color at the center of the spathe. Other colors removed and burnt. Three-fourths ripe cut plex referred to as Anthurium andraeanum and patterns arise because of copigmentation flowers were harvested on a daily basis from Hort. (Kamemoto and Kuehnle, 1996) or because Monday to Friday between 0700 and 1100 HR. of regulatory patterning (stripes or splashes). Experimentation. The accessions were The important horticultural features of arranged in multiple beds within the shade Received for publication 10 May 2012. Accepted the cut flower are its color, size, texture, shape houses. Ten guarded plants were randomly for publication 26 June 2012. and showiness of the spathe, spadix length selected from the beds planted with a partic- This study was funded by the EUFORUM/ and carriage, straightness of the peduncle and ular accession and evaluated for 16 leaf and CARIFORUM under the Caribbean Agricultural peduncle length, overall symmetry of the cut-flower parameters. All linear measure- Technology Fund (CARTF) program. cut flower, and productivity (Kamemoto and ments were done to 1 mm accuracy using a We thank the management and staff of Kairi Blooms Farm for providing the facilities for the Kuehnle, 1996; Kamemoto et al., 1986). measuring tape (Knight 3.6 m tape, Taiwan), research and Ms. Marilyn Goddard for her technical Anthurium andraeanum Linden ex Andre´ except for spadix diameter, which was mea- assistance. was first introduced in the Caribbean in 1915 sured with a pair of calipers (ENKAY Vernier 1To whom reprint requests should be addressed; by Eugene Andre´ (Rapsey and Carr, 1968). Caliper 5-inch scale; Lo. 430-C ENKAY, e-mail [email protected]. With anthurium gaining popularity in the Brooklyn, NY) halfway along its length. 1234 HORTSCIENCE VOL. 47(9) SEPTEMBER 2012 Spadix length was measured as the distance was calculated as the CVbetween accessions di- accessions. Typically, accessions with a white from the point of attachment of the in- vided by the CVwithin accessions. spathe had spadices that were yellow (eight florescence at the peduncle to the tip for of 16) followed in numbers by yellow–green 3/4 ripe spadices (Dai and Paull, 1990). The Results (five of 16) and red/rose (three of 16). The length of the spathe was measured from the spadix of accessions with green spathes uppermost lobe border to the tip as de- Color of the cut flower. Of the 82 acces- always had green at the tip and sometimes scribed by Rosario (1981). The width of the sions evaluated, the primary spathe colors even at the base, although pink, yellow, or spathe was measured as the edge-to-edge of pink (20), red (16), and white (16) were orange colors also occurred at the base. perpendicular distance directly behind the the most common followed by obakes (14) Spadix colors of obake accessions showed spadix (Dufour and Guerin, 2003; van Herk (Fig. 1). The red, pink, and white accessions considerable variation. The orange and coral et al., 1998). Spathe size for each accession varied in the intensity of spathe pigmenta- accessions typically had yellow spadices was calculated by multiplying spathe tion. Accessions with white spathes ranged except one coral accession that also had green length by spathe width. Peduncle length from bright to pale white to white with coloration at the tip of the spadix. The two was measured as the linear distance from pink veins and borders. There were red, purple and two brown accessions had purple the point of attachment of the spathe to the pink, orange, coral, and white obake types and brown spadices, respectively. point of attachment of the stem (Elibox and with pink obake