Alstroemeria, Alstromeriaceae, Performance, Cut flower and Genotype.

Alstroemeria (Alstroemeria spp.) commonly known as the Lily of Incas or lily of Perus or Peruvian lily or red parrot beak or New Zealand Christmas bell, are lily-like flowers belonging to the flowering plant genus of the family Alstroemeriaceae. It was named in honour of Klas Van Alstroemer, who in 1754 brought rhizomes of Alstroemeria to his father Linnaeus, a plant taxonomist. It is native flower of South America. The Netherlands ranks first among the producers of Alstroemeria (Monya et al., 2021). 

In India, it is recently introduced as a new cut flower, its cultivation is started around Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. It was also introduced in Palampur, Solan, Srinagar and Ooty to popularize the crop among growers for domestic and export markets. It is gaining popularity in Indian flower market due to its long stem flowers, prolonged vase life and various colours and shades of petals, generally having lavender, maroon, white, orange, yellow, pink, red and purple colours. They are used as cut flowers or as potted or garden plants and also as filler flowers which are perfect addition to a "wildflower" arrangement (Singh and Dhyani 2015).

Alstroemerias are monocot rhizomatous perennials, consisting of sympodial fleshy and multi-stemmed rhizomes. Depending on the environmental conditions, the shoots are either reproductive or vegetative. The inflorescence is a whorled cymose. Each cyme is sympodially branched upto four florets per cyme Sankari et al. (2011). Alstroemeria typically produces 2 or 3 flushes of blooms in a year. This perennial plant blooms in cycles, with each flush lasting several weeks.

There are several studies revealing the performance of different varieties of different crop at specific regions viz., in Carnation, the variety Hillary (174.99) recorded maximum flower length (5.4cm) and maximum flower diameter (6.27 cm). Maximum bud length (3.17cm), bud diameter (2.23cm), flower stalk girth (21.33 mm) and maximum vase life (10.67 days) were recorded in the variety Cinderella. Minimum days taken to bud opening was in the variety Kino (15.67) discoursed by Medeo et al. (2019). Anand et al. (2024) reported that the cultivar Pink Panther recorded maximum flower diameter (6.28 cm) and Aladdin recorded maximum vase life in water (6.43 days) in Alstroemeria. The maximum number of buds per plant (16.59), number of stalks per plant (2.62), number of stalks per sq. m (41.92) and maximum number of stalks per 560 sq. m (20,960) was recorded in Echo Lavender.

There is a constant demand for new flower crops over the existing varieties. Therefore, it is essential to assess the performance of different genotypes in specific regions.

The investigation consisted of 12 genotypes viz., Capri, Piantum, Riana, Pluto, Pink Panther, Ooty Collection-1, Ooty Collection-2, Ooty Collection-3, Ooty Collection-4, Darjeeling Collection-1, Darjeeling Collection-2 and Darjeeling Collection-3 (Plate 1), which were replicated thrice in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), carried out under a naturally ventilated polyhouse at College of Horticulture, Mudigere, under Keladi Shivappa Nayaka University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga during 2023-24. Standard cultural practices were followed throughout the crop period. The objective of this investigation was to study the performance of Alstroemeria (Alstroemeria aurea L.) genotypes for flowering, flower quality and yield attributing characters under the hill zone of Karnataka. The rooted rhizomes were transplanted onto raised beds with a spacing of 50×50 cm. Observations were recorded in each genotype for days taken for flower bud initiation, days taken for first floret opening, days taken for flower stalk harvesting, duration of flowering (days), bud length (cm), bud diameter (mm), number of flowers per spike, flower length (cm), flower diameter (mm), stalk length (cm), stalk girth (mm), stalk weight (g), vase life (days), number of spikes per plant, per square meter and per 1000 square meter.

The findings were considerably interpreted and listed in Table 1-3 based on the observations recorded in the present research.

A. Mean performance of cultivars for flowering traits

All flowering traits varied significantly among the cultivars. The mean performance of 12 Alstroemeria genotypes for different flowering characters is presented in Table 1.

The genotype Ooty Collection -3 recorded minimum days to flower bud initiation (70.07), followed by Capri (76.93) and Ooty Collection -1 (82.40), whereas genotype Darjeeling Collection -3 recorded maximum days to flower bud initiation (132.73). This variation might be mainly governed by genetic makeup of the genotypes. Similar variations were also reported by Rupali et al. (2018) in Chrysanthemum, Anitha et al. (2013); Ahmad et al. (2017) in Lisianthus. The genotype Capri took minimum days to flower opening (11.20), which is on par with Ooty Collection -3 (11.40) and Ooty Collection -1 (11.53), while Darjeeling Collection -3 took maximum days to flower opening recorded by the genotype (16.73). The genotype Capri recorded minimum days taken for flower stalk harvesting (88.20), followed by Ooty Collection -1 (99.20), while maximum days to flower stalk harvesting recorded by the genotype Darjeeling Collection -3 (150.40). The maximum duration of flowering was observed in the genotype Pluto (104.20), followed by Ooty Collection -1 (98.20) and Ooty Collection -4 (92.87), whereas minimum duration of flowering was recorded by the genotype Darjeeling Collection -3 (30.40). The variation in duration of flowering is represented in Fig. 1. This variation might be mainly governed by genomic constitution of the genotypes. Similar results were also reported by Bhargav et al. (2020); Ahmad et al. (2017) in Lisianthus. 

B. Mean performance of cultivars for flower quality traits

All flower quality traits varied significantly among the cultivars. The mean performance of 12 Alstroemeria genotypes for different flower quality characters is presented in Table 2.

The maximum bud length in the genotype Capri (4.75 cm), which stood on par with Ooty Collection -3 (4.32 cm), whereas minimum bud length in the genotype Piantum (2.69 cm). The variation might be due to the differences in the genetic makeup. Similar findings on differences in bud length were found in Singh (2006) and Kashyap et al. (2018) in Alstroemeria. The genotype Ooty Collection -3 (11.78 mm) recorded maximum bud diameter, followed by Capri (10.21 mm). However, the minimum bud diameter was found in Darjeeling Collection -2 (6.08 mm). The variation in bud diameter of the Alstroemeria genotypes might be due to the differences in the genetic constitution. These results are in conformity with Medeo et al. (2019) in Carnation.

The genotype Ooty Collection -1 (7.15 cm) recorded maximum flower length, which was on par with Pluto (6.79 cm), Capri (6.70 cm) and Ooty Collection -3 (6.49 cm). However, the minimum flower length was recorded by Darjeeling Collection -3 (4.39 cm). The variation in the flower length might be due to the genotypic expression of the genotypes. These results are in conformity with Chandrashekar et al. (2018) in Asiatic Lily and Medeo et al. (2019) in Carnation. The maximum flower diameter was observed in the genotype Ooty Collection -1 (54.92 mm), followed by Ooty Collection -3 (51.20 mm) and Capri (47.20 mm), whereas the minimum flower diameter was recorded in the genotype Darjeeling Collection -2 (25.36 mm). The differences in the flower diameter might be due to inherent character of individual genotypes and bigger sized flowers. These results are in conformity with Medeo et al. (2019) in Carnation, Chandrashekar et al. (2018) in Asiatic lily and Roopa et al. (2018a) in Chrysanthemum. The maximum number of flowers per spike was recorded by the genotype Ooty Collection -1 (12.03), followed by Ooty Collection -3 (10.33), whereas minimum number of flowers per spike was recorded by Darjeeling Collection -2 (6.93). The variation in number of flowers might be due genetic constitution of the individual genotypes. Similar results were observed by Medeo et al. (2019) in Carnation, Ahmad et al. (2017) in Lisianthus and Rai and Rana (2019) in Alstroemeria.

The genotype Pink Panther recorded maximum stalk length (88.29 cm), followed by Ooty Collection -4 (84.00 cm) and Riana (83.87 cm). However, the minimum stalk length was recorded by Darjeeling Collection -2 (42.80 cm). The variation might be due to increase in plant height. These results are in conformity with Anand et al. (2024); Rai and Rana (2019) in Alstroemeria and Medeo et al. (2019) in Carnation. The genotype with Ooty Collection -1 (8.05 mm) recorded maximum stalk girth, which was on par with Pluto (7.98 mm) and Ooty Collection -3 (7.89 mm). However, the minimum stalk weight was recorded by Darjeeling Collection -3 (6.12 mm). The stalk girth decides the stalk strength, decreased stalk girth is due to increased stalk length. Because, plant directs more resources towards increasing stalk length, then fewer resources available to increase stalk girth. Similar results were observed by Rai and Rana (2019) in Alstroemeria, Roopa et al. (2018a) in Chrysanthemum and Medeo et al. (2019) in Carnation. The maximum stalk weight was observed in the genotype Ooty Collection -1 (30.40 g), followed by Ooty Collection - 3 (27.30 g). The minimum stalk weight was observed in the genotype Darjeeling Collection -2 (15.50 g). This variation in stalk weight (Fig. 2) might mainly be due to stalk girth and less likely due to stalk length. Similar results were noticed in Singh et al. (2013) in Carnation. The maximum vase life was recorded in the genotype Pluto (7.60 days), followed by Ooty Collection -2 (6.40 days), while minimum vase life was recorded in the genotype Darjeeling Collection -3 (5.20 days). This variation among the different genotypes in vase life might be due to both stalk girth and stalk length. Similar results were noticed in Singh (2006); Anand et al. (2024) in Alstroemeria.

C. Mean performance of cultivars for yield traits

The yield traits varied significantly among the cultivars. The mean performance of 12 Alstroemeria genotypes for the yield characters is presented in Table 3.

The maximum number of spikes per plant, per m2 and per 1000 sq. m was recorded in the genotype Ooty Collection -1 (5.07, 20.28 and 20,280 respectively), followed by Ooty Collection -3 (4.47, 17.88 and 17,880 respectively), whereas the minimum number of spikes per plant, per m2 and per 1000 sq. m was recorded in the genotype Darjeeling Collection -2 (1.53, 6.12 and 6,120 respectively). The increase in stalk yield can be attributed to a greater number of leaves, which produces and accumulates higher amounts of photosynthetic material, ultimately resulting in increased output. Similar variation for spike yield was also observed by Medeo et al. (2019) in Carnation, Bhargav et al. (2020); Sanketh et al. (2023) in Stock.

Table 1: Mean performance of Alstroemeria genotypes for flowering traits.

Table 2:  Mean performance of Alstroemeria genotypes with respect to flower quality traits.

Table 3: Performance of Alstroemeria genotypes with respect to yield characters.

Fig. 1. The variation in stalk weight(g) and stalk length (cm) of 12 Alstroemeria genotypes under study.

Fig. 2. The variation in duration of flowering (days) of 12 Alstroemeria genotypes under study.

The results of the experiment clearly confirmed that, the genotype Ooty Collection -1, followed by Ooty Collection -3, Capri and Pluto found to be superior with regard to most of the traits such as flowering, flower quality and yield parameters. Hence, these genotypes may be recommended for commercial cultivation under polyhouse condition.

The promising genotypes might be utilized in the crop improvement programme. More genotypes may be added to know the extended variability of Alstroemeria. Characterization of Alstroemeria through molecular markers.

Vismitha C.Y., Chandrashekar S.Y., Hemla Naik B., Kencharaddi R.N., Jayaprakash S.M.  and Hemanth Kumar P.  (2024). Performance of Alstroemeria (Alstroemeria aurea L.) Genotypes for Flowering, Flower Quality and Yield Attributing Characters under Hill Zone of Karnataka. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 16(10): 55-60.