Induced changes in growth and flowering of chrysanthemum after irradiation and in vitro culture of pedicels and petal epidermis

Summary To increase the genetic variation for yield in Chrysanthemum morifolium cv. White Spider, pedicel segments and petal epidermis were induced in vitro to regenerate adventitious buds either directly from the original tissue or indirectly via callus. Besides, pedicels were irradiated before in vitro culture with an X-ray dose of 8 Gy. All treatments yielded variation in flower morphology. Changes in flower colour were largely restricted to treatments involving irradiation.Treatments yielding many morphological variants also yielded most production variants. Plants regenerated from petals differed from those originating from pedicels. Clones were found that had retained the morphology of White Spider, but outperformed the controls in flowering time and flower number.