ANTHURIUM - A FLOWER FOR WASE PAR EXCELLENCE

ANTHURIUM- FLOWER PAR EXCELLENCE

Common name: Flamingo flower, Tail flower, Painter's palette
Botanical name: Anthurium andraeanum   Family: Araceae (arum family)

Anthurium, pronounced an-THOO-ree-um, are once-seen, never-forgotten flowers.

Their unmistakable glossy heart-shaped bright red flower bract (which gives them their popular name of painter's palette) surrounds the true flowers, which are in the form of a spike (or spathe) at the centre.

Anthurium is a large species, belonging to the arum family (Araceae). Anthurium can also be called “Flamingo Flower” or “Boy Flower”, both referring to the structure of the spathe and spadix.

A tropical perennial herb growing up to 20" tall; it has dark green heart-shaped leathery leaves and a green stem.

 

Anthurium flowers are small and develop crowded in a spike on a fleshy axis, called a spadix, a characteristic of the Araceae. The flowers on the spadix are often divided sexually with a sterile band separating male from female flowers. This spadix can take on many forms (club-shaped, tapered, spiraled, and globe-shaped) and colors (white, green, purple, red, pink, or a combination).

The spike in the middle is called the spadix, and it carries the Anthurium flowers. The spike is the characteristic of the Araceae or Arum family.  The flower are dioceous (i.e)The flowers are hermaphrodite consisting of both male and female flowers; and believe it or not, the band that separates the two-toned colors on the spadix actually divide the male flowers from the female flowers.

Anthuriums come in shades of reds, pinks, white, lilac, green and chocolate brown.

The spathe is the brilliant-colored, shiny outer portion that looks like the collar or hood of the flower; and it’s available in different colors such as a single color (red, yellow, rose, orange, green, or white) or possibly multi-colored including green and red. The spathe looks almost plastic and feels leathery to the touch. The color of the spathe changes between the bud stage and the time the flower expands; and it can change from pale green to burgandy to reddish brown.

Anthrium can also grow in the following forms:

Epiphytes:  A plant that grows on another plant and has roots that can hang from the canopy all the way down to the rainforest floor

Terrestrial plant: Plants that are found in the understory of the rainforest and grow on the land

Hemiepiphytic: Plants that begin its life as an epiphyte and later grows roots down into the ground

Lithophytes:  Plants that grow in rocks

 The seeds are small subglobose berries.

The flower bracts have a puckered appearance and shine as though they were varnished.

Anthuriums will bloom more or less continuously, each plant having four to six flowers during the year.

ANTHURIUM AS A POTTED PLANT OR HOUSEPLANT

Anthurium is easy to grow. This tropical plant can be grown as houseplants. They’ll need temperatures between 60-72 degrees with less light compared to most houseplants. Give them as much light as possible without direct sunlight. If there isn’t enough light, leaves will become distorted. They need to be watered thoroughly and then allowed to dry slightly before watering them again.  If the plant dries out, it will slow down the growth cycle. Drying out can also cause root damage and will also cause the tip of the plant to burn. If you water it too much, you can not only cause root damage, but the leaves will turn yellow. The leaves are sturdy enough that you can wipe them off with water to remove dust.   They will bloom indoors year round if grown in the correct environment and are durable enough to survive as an indoor foliage plant for a long period of time.

                             

ANTHURIUM AS A CUT FLOWER

As far as cut flowers, Anthuriums are one of the most popular tropical plants, next to orchids and bird of paradise. They have a long vase life of about six weeks, and even more depending on the variety.

Each flower will last about six weeks on the plant or several weeks when cut and placed in a vase of water.

As the longevity of the cut flowers , when properly maintained it has a great market both at floral shops and homes and offices.

PROPAGATION OF ANTHURIUM

Anthuriums can be propagated by separating crowded clusters  or through cutting to get the same type of plants.

In order to increase one's collection of Anthurium you may divide the plants and root cuttings or you may pollinate your plants and grow new ones from seed

HYBRIDISATION

If you can wait for  some time for Anthuriums to flower, Seeds are the best and can be obtained by HYBRIDISATION.

In Anthurium seed propagation  is not automatically achieved by the plant except in a few species ( i.e. A. gracile, A. scandens and A. bakeri ) due to the sequence of events in the sex life of the plant. Anthuriums have perfect flowers, bearing both male and female working parts. The difficulty is this; the stigma (female) is ready for pollination before the pistals (male) presents its pollen. In nature this helps to insure cross-pollination and discourages self-pollination. For the grower who wants to pollinate his plants, this creates some nuiscence.

Identifying,  when a paricular Anthurium inflorescence is ready for pollination is a very easy matter. The stigma will exude a drop of fluid  which will sit at the apex of each individual flower on the spadix. Some species present this droplet on all flowers at the same time and others may present theirs in succesion. This usually takes place in the early morning hours. At any rate when these droplets are present, the flower is 'ready' to be pollinated.

Having pollen ready for this momentus occasion is going to be the "trick" you will have to learn. One way is to grow several clones of the same species to help insure that stigmatic fluid and pollen are present at the same time. Rarely will the same plant have stigmatic fluid and pollen at the same time, although it does happen in some species on occasion. If you only have one clone of a species, then your job becomes more difficult. As many species put forth more than one inflorescence in succession, it is possible to collect and store pollen from an earlier inflorescence and use it when the next inflorescence is 'ready'. Several methods are used to collect and store pollen. Pollen is ready to be collected and/or used when it is visible on the surface of the spadix. The timing of this event is always after the last of the stigmatic fluid is dried up and no longer visible. Pollen will be shed for a few to several days. You can wipe if off with your finger, a brush, or tap it into paper envelopes for storage in a cool dry place. The pollen will not last more than a week or two. Some will store the pollen in air tight containers, with or without a dessecant, some feel the pollen is more likely to mold in the refrigerator. An individual will have to experiment with various methods to find out which fits their species requirements and personal horticultural habits.

So.. if you have stigmatic fluid showing, and pollen exuding, (from storage or another plant) you are ready to pollinate. Simply take the pollen and place in on the spadix and with a brush or your finger smear it up and down and around the spadix. Do this for several mornings in a row or as long as you have fluid and pollen available. Make out a tag with your pollination information on it and wait for the berries to form.

The berries will typically contain one or two seeds, depending on the species and health of the plant. Berries are ripe when they acheive their proper color and size. You will be sure they are ready when they literally 'pop out' of the spadix ( Fig. 3 ). Some species berries 'pop out' all at once and some 'pop out' over a period of several days as they ripen in succession. These berries with their seeds are ready. The seeds can easily be squezed out of the berry between your fingers. The seed should be sown immediatly as it dessicates easily and is not viable for very long. Storage of seed is of little value.

Seed often has a small green radicle already emerging at the time of seed harvest. Germination takes from 1-3 weeks in most cases, but may take longer in some species. Give seedlings a well drained soilless mix and be careful of fungal and bacterial attacks and your seedlings will be well on their way.

STEPS IN GROWING FROM SEED

Ø 1.Squeeze the berries on to wet cotton and leave it for germination.

Ø After the seedlings have gained some acceptable size; plant it over wet moss.

Ø Allow them to grow well and transplant after a height of 4”

PLANTS FOR LARGER COMMERCIAL FORMS

It is better to buy TISSUE CULTURED SEEDLINGS from Reputed Nurseries in Indfia or abroad for large plantations and use drip irrigation system.

POMEGRANATE – LIFE’s ELIXIR – A BERRY WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED

POMEGRANATE – LIFE’s ELIXIR – A BERRY WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED

The pomegranate /ˈpɒmɨɡrænɨt/, botanical name Punica granatum, is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing between 5–8 meters (16–26 ft) tall.

The pomegranate is steeped in history especially of the moguls and Arabian nights,  belongs to the family Punicaceae which includes only one genus and two species, the other one, little-known, being P. protopunica Balf. peculiar to the island of Socotra (an island of Republic of Yemen- where most plants seems to belong to yester world and are unique)

The genus name PUNICA , was the common name of Carthage in Rome, the place from which best pomegranates were sent to ITALY. The  French called it as GRANADE and perhaps the present name has been derived from these two names.

ORIGIN

The pomegranate tree is native from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India and has been cultivated since ancient times throughout the Mediterranean region of Asia, Africa and Europe. The fruit was used in many ways as it is today and was featured in Egyptian mythology and art, praised in the Old Testament of the Bible and in the Babylonian Talmud, and it was carried by desert caravans for the sake of its thirst-quenching juice. It traveled to central and southern India from Iran about the first century A.D.

COMMON VARIETIES

The most popular KABUL POMEGRANTE , is a VARIETY and need not come Kabul in Afghanistan. But people are used to associate the fruit with Kabul.

In India there are several named cultivars. Preference is usually given those with fleshy, juicy pulp around the seeds. Types with relatively soft seeds are often classed as "seedless". Among the best are 'Bedana' and 'Kandhari'. 'Bedana' is medium to large, with brownish or whitish rind, pulp pinkish-white, sweet, seeds soft. 'Kandhari' is large, deep-red, with deep-pink or blood-red, subacid pulp and hard seeds.

Further information on the varieties and names can be obtained from the web.

DESCRIPTION

An attractive shrub or small tree, to 20 or 30 ft (6 or 10 m) high, the pomegranate is much-branched, more or less spiny, and extremely long-lived, some specimens at Versailles known to have survived two centuries. It has a strong tendency to sucker from the base. The leaves are evergreen or deciduous, opposite or in whorls of 5 or 6, short-stemmed, oblong-lanceolate, 3/8 to 4 in (1-10 cm) long, leathery.

FLOWERS

Showy flowers are home on the branch tips singly or as many as 5 in a cluster. They are 1 1/4 in (3 cm) wide and characterized by the thick, tubular, red calyx having 5 to 8 fleshy, pointed sepals forming a vase from which emerge the 3 to 7 crinkled, red, white or variegated petals enclosing the numerous stamens. The flowers are bright red, 3 cm in diameter, with four to five petals (often more on cultivated plants). Some fruitless varieties are grown for the flowers alone.

Pomegranate [Punica granatum (Punicaceae)] is characterized by having two types of flowers on the same tree: hermaphroditic bisexual flowers and functionally male flowers. This condition, defined as functional andromonoecy, can result in decreased yields resulting from the inability of male flowers to set fruit. In short the same plant has both MONOCEOUS (having both female and male parts) and DIOCEOUS (having either male or female part) flowers.

FRUIT

The edible fruit belong to the fruit classification  BERRY and is between a lemon and a grapefruit in size, 5–12 cm in diameter with a rounded hexagonal shape, and has thick reddish skin. The exact number of seeds in a pomegranate can vary from 200 to about 1400 seeds, contrary to some beliefs that all pomegranates have exactly the same number of seeds. Each seed has a surrounding water-laden pulp—the edible aril—ranging in color from white to deep red or purple. The seeds are embedded in a white, spongy, astringent membrane. Nearly round, but crowned at the base by the prominent calyx, the fruit, 2 1/2 to 5 in (6.25-12.5 cm) wide, has a tough, leathery skin or rind, basically yellow more or less overlaid with light or deep pink or rich red. The interior is separated by membranous walls and white spongy tissue (rag) into compartments packed with transparent sacs filled with tart, flavorful, fleshy, juicy, red, pink or whitish pulp (technically the aril). In each sac, there is one white or red, angular, soft or hard seed. The seeds represent about 52% of the weight of the whole fruit.

CLIMATIC  CONDITIONS FOR GROWTH

The species is primarily mild-temperate to subtropical and naturally adapted to regions with cool winters and hot summers, but certain types are grown in home dooryards in tropical areas. Fruit development is enhanced after a cold winter.  The plant favors a semi-arid climate and is extremely drought -tolerant.

SOIL CONDITIONS

Pomegranate has been found to thrive on Calcareous alkaline soil as well as mild acidic loam. Hence it is tolerant most soil conditions.

HARVESTING AND YIELD

It takes six to seven months  for the fruit to ripen after flowering. Protecting the fruit from its natural enemies, Birds and squirrels is a grate problem one has to face. The fruit cannot be ripened off the tree even with ethylene treatment. Growers generally consider the fruit ready for harvest if it makes a metallic sound when tapped. The fruit must be picked before over maturity when it tends to crack open if rained upon or under certain conditions of atmospheric humidity, dehydration by winds, or insufficient irrigation. Of course, one might assume that ultimate splitting is the natural means of seed release and dispersal.

The pomegranate is equal to the apple in having a long storage life. It is best maintained at a temperature of 32º to 41º F (0º-5º C). The fruits improve in storage, become juicier and more flavorful; may be kept for a period of 7 months within this temperature range and at 80 to 85% relative humidity, without shrinking or spoiling.

 

Pests and Diseases
The pomegranate butterfly, Virachola isocrates, lays eggs on flower-buds and the calyx of developing fruits; in a few days the caterpillars enter the fruit by way of the calyx. These fruit borers may cause loss of an entire crop unless the flowers are sprayed 2 times 30 days apart. A stem borer sometimes makes holes right through the branches. Twig dieback may be caused by either Pleuroplaconema or Ceuthospora Phyllosticta. Discoloration of fruits and seeds results from infestation by Aspergillus castaneus. The fruits may be sometimes disfigured by Sphaceloma punicae. Dry rot from Phomopsis sp. or Zythia versoniana may destroy as much as 80% of the crop unless these organisms are controlled by appropriate spraying measures. Excessive rain during the ripening season may induce soft rot. A post-harvest rot caused by Alternaria solani was observed in India in 1974. It is particularly prevalent in cracked fruits.
Minor problems are leaf and fruit spot caused by Cercospora, Gloeosporium and Pestalotia sp.; also foliar damage by whitefly, thrips, mealybugs and scale insects; and defoliation by Euproctis spp. and Archyophora dentula. Termites may infest the trunk. In India, paper or plastic bags or other covers may be put over the fruits to protect them from borers, birds, bats and squirrels.

FOOD USES

 Pomegranate fruit rinds can be eaten raw as many soft seeded varieties have come up. The fruits are juicy and mildly sweet. The fruits are  deeply scored several times vertically and then broken apart; then the clusters of juice sacs can be lifted out of the rind and eaten. Italians and other pomegranate fanciers consider this not a laborious handicap but a social, family or group activity, prolonging the pleasure of dining. Nevertheless  juice is fancied in many cuisines and countries.
In northern India, a major use of the wild fruits is for the preparation of "anardana"–the juice sacs being dried in the sun for 10 to 15 days and then sold as a spice.
MEDICINAL USES:
 The juice of wild pomegranates yields citric acid and sodium citrate for pharmaceutical purposes. Pomegranate juice enters into preparations for treating dyspepsia and is considered beneficial in leprosy.
The bark of the stem and root contains several alkaloids including isopelletierine which is active against tapeworms. Either a decoction of the bark, which is very bitter, or the safer, insoluble Pelletierine Tannate may be employed. Overdoses are emetic and purgative, produce dilation of pupila, dimness of sight, muscular weakness and paralysis.
Because of their tannin content, extracts of the bark, leaves, immature fruit and fruit rind have been given as astringents to halt diarrhea, dysentery and hemorrhages. Dried, pulverized flower buds are employed as a remedy for bronchitis. In Mexico, a decoction of the flowers is gargled to relieve oral and throat inflammation. Leaves, seeds, roots and bark have displayed hypotensive, antispasmodic and anthelmintic activity in bioassay.
PROPAGATION
Pomegranate seeds germinate readily even when merely thrown onto the surface of loose soil and the seedlings spring up with vigor. But the  seedlings show high  variation. Hence selected cultivars are usually reproduced by means of hardwood cuttings 10 to 20 in (25-50 cm) long. Treatment with 50 ppm. indole-butyric acid and planting at a moisture level of 15.95% greatly enhances root development and survival. The cuttings are set in beds with 1 or 2 buds above the soil for 1 year, and then transplanted to the field. Grafting has never been successful but branches may be air-layered and suckers from a parent plant can be taken up and transplanted.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND ECONOMICS
I visited a school at Huliar (13.5833° N, 76.5500° E) a small town in Chickanaikan halli Taluk, Tumkur district of Karnataka. The farmers in the area have taken up Pomegranate cultivation. I visited the TWO ACRE farm of one Chenna Gowda. He has planted Pomegranate plants at 3 meters distance from one another in his farm. He has also reserved about 10-15 plants as mother plants for AIR LAYERING.
This area receives less rain fall , but relatively fertile due to The Government irrigation schemes.
According to Sri.Gowda, he markets his Pomegranate produce at BANGALORE AUCTION about four hours drive from Huliar . After all his expenses he is understood to make around 10 lacs /peracre/per annum. Apart from this he alsp AIR LAYERS seedlings from the mother plants and sells rooted cuttings at the rate of Rs.20/cutting and planted seedlings in plastic bag at the rate of Rs.40/seedling. 
My three month old air-layered cutting has flowered and has yielded at our terrace garden at Chennai. We have to wait and see if the fruits would mature in about six months.