Effects Of Photoperiod On Salicornia Bigelovii Torr.

The intention of this work was to examine the effects of photoperiod on Salicornia bigelovii Torr..Seeds of Salicornia bigelovii Torr. were planted on 29, March in Jinan (36° 40' N, 117° 02' E) .The sand in pots was irrigated with Hoagland containing 400 mmol/L NaCl. Seedlings were treated with different daylengths and with different numbers of photoperiods. The results showed that treatments with short day-lengths promoted its flowering and the critical daylength is 15h. Treated with 8h light/d, the critical number of photoperiods needed to induce flowering in Salicornia bigelovii Torr. is 13. Flowering reversion occurred when treated with 13-18 photoperiods and then transposed to long day-length(17h light/d).Plants treated with daylengths not longer than 15h flowered earlier with the shortening of the daylength. Plants flowered earliest when treated with 8h light/d. When treated with 6h light/d, 7h light/d, the plants flowered later and the number of flowers per plant was small. Perhaps this is due to the short photosynthesis time and the insufficient photosynthetic product. The promotion effects is stronger with the increase of number of photoperiods , which suggests that the flowering process in Salicornia bigelovii Torr. is not a "all or none" process. Treated with 13-18 photoperiods and then transposed to long-daylength (17h light/d), some of the inflorescences of the plants reversed to vegetative condition, which means flowering reversion occurred(which belongs to inflorescence reversion type). All above indicates that short daylength promoted flowering in Salicornia bigelovii Torr..On the contrary, long daylength inhibited both its floral induction and development of post-flowering. Both the floral induction and the development of flower organ in Salicornia bigelovii Torr. needed short daylength. The flowering reversion is maybe in relation to the insufficient quality of flowering substances and the flowering habit of Salicornia bigelovii Torr.. Flowering reversion didn't occur in plants treated with more than 19 photoperiods, which perhaps is due to sufficient number of floral determination cells in the meristem and the floral determination of the plants is complete.