2014 ASHS Annual Conference

Anthurium is one of the most prominent flowers in the tropical cut flower industry. Its appeal is in part due to the exceptionally long vase-life seen in some cultivars. Here the link between water relations and vase-life was investigated for three anthurium cultivars: Spirit, Success, and Honduras.

Blooms were kept in vases in controlled conditions while regular measurements were made of bloom degradation index (BDI), water uptake, water loss, stomatal conductance (g_s), and the relative water content (RWC) of the spathe, the peduncle apex and the peduncle base.

Spirit, Success and Honduras took 15, 18 and 36 days respectively to reach end of vase-life. In all three cultivars, end of vase-life occurred at c. 75% spathe RWC. However, there was no relationship between RWC of the peduncle base or apex and degradation for any of the cultivars. This indicated that blockage of the peduncle was not a critical factor in loss of water content in the spathe. Both water uptake and water loss were highest for Spirit, indicating that this may have induced the rapid loss of vase-life in this cultivar. The high water uptake seen in this short vase-life cultivar also suggests that blockage of the peduncle was not the cause of bloom degradation. The water uptake and water loss values for Success and Honduras were initially similar (ranging from 0.3-1.5g/d/bloom) but Honduras maintained water uptake rates for longer, whilst Success showed an overall decrease in water loss with time. Water retained in the bloom (water loss - water uptake) was compared to BDI for all cultivars. Although there were some fluctuations, there was a general trend for water loss to exceed water uptake as BDI increased for Spirit and Success. Honduras retained moisture throughout, with water uptake keeping pace with water loss despite a small increase in BDI.

Spirit showed the highest value for g_s, which likely accounted for its rapid bloom degradation even though this was accompanied by rapid water uptake. Success and Honduras showed similar g_s and similar water uptake for most of the study; however success appeared to lose its ability to take up water sooner than Honduras.