Morphological and botanical profile of Lachenalia cultivars.

Constant selection of common ornamental geophytes increases activity in the field of traditional crop improvement by breeding and commercialisation of new cultivars. In this paper, the morphological and botanical attributes (inflorescence stem height, inflorescence length, stem diameter, flower number, pedicel length and distance, fullness ratio, inflorescence type, leaf characteristics, perianth shape and colour and filament orientation as well as tepal, filament, anther and ovary dimensions) as well as growth and flowering patterns (number of days from potting date to the beginning of flowering) of seven Lachenalia cultivars ('Aqua Lady', 'Josephine', 'Radient', 'Rainbow Bells', 'Riana', 'Romaud' and 'Ronina') possessing high ornamental value were described in detail. The obtained results indicate differences of the studied cultivars both in terms of the dimensions of individual plant elements, as well as in the colours of flowers and flowering time. More compact cultivars, as 'Josephine', 'Radient', 'Riana' and 'Romaud' are recommended for potted cultivation. 'Rainbow Bells', 'Aqua Lady' and 'Ronina' should rather be considered as cut flowers. Principal components analysis identified four principal components that accounted for 83.4% of the total variability. [Display omitted] • Seven tested Lachenalia cultivars possess high ornamental value. • They differ in terms of the dimensions of individual plant elements. • The beginning of flowering was noted after 76–100 days (depending on cultivar). • Flower colors presented by cultivars: blue, pink, purple, yellow and orange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]