Floral ontogeny of Swainsona formosa (Fabaceae: Faboideae: Galegeae)
T. Tapingkae A C , A. Taji B and P. Kristiansen BA Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Chiang Mai Rajabhat University, Chiang Mai 50300, Thailand.
B School of Rural Science and Agriculture, Faculty of Science, The University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: ttapingk@une.edu.au
Australian Journal of Botany 55(6) 643-652 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT06111
Submitted: 5 June 2006 Accepted: 26 February 2007 Published: 27 September 2007
Abstract
Swainsona formosa (G.Don) J.Thompson (Sturt’s desert pea) is used in commercial floriculture for cut flowers and ornamental pot plants; however, accurate identification of the growth stages is critically important in making management decisions in floricultural crops. This plant was investigated by stereomicroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to identify flowering time and stages of floral development. This is the first work to describe the complete floral ontogeny in a member of tribe Galegeae. Conversion from vegetative to reproductive stages began within 40–46 days after seed germination for axillary branches and within 46–52 days for central stems. Plants required 807.5 days °C growing degree-days for axillary branches and 921.5 days °C for central stems to reach 50% flowering. The central stem grew more nodes (11.1 ± 0.97 nodes) before the initiation of the first flower than did the axillary branches (7.2 ± 0.93 nodes). The order of floral organ initiation within each whorl is unidirectional, except for the petal whorl, which is simultaneous; the flower is organised into five whorls and shows a pentamerous arrangement of sepals and petals, 10 stamens in two whorls and a central carpel.
Acknowledgements
We thank P. Littlefield of the Electron Microscope Unit for technical assistance and helpful advice with the scanning electron microscopy study, and G. Cluley and M. Faint for their valuable technical help. We are also grateful to Associate Professor N. Prakash and Dr J. Smith for helpful comments on the manuscript.
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