Effect of Low-intensity Red and Far-red Light and High-intensity White Light on the Flowering Response of the Long-day Plant Lemna gibba G3

Abstract

The long-day plant Lemna gibba L., strain G3 exhibits a relatively low sensitivity to short, white-light interruptions given during the dark period of a short-day cycle. However, the plants are fairly sensitive to low-intensity red light treatments given during a 15-hour dark period on the third day of a 2LD-(9L:15D)-2LD-7SD schedule. Far-red light is almost as effective as red light, and attempts to reverse the red light response with subsequent far-red light treatments have not been successful. Blue light proved to be without effect. When plants were grown on a 48-hour cycle with 15 minutes of red light every 4 hours during the dark period, the critical daylength was reduced from about 32 hours to slightly less than 12 hours.Continuous red light induced a fairly good flowering response. However, as little as 1 hour of white light each day gave a significant improvement in the flowering response over that of the continuous red light control. White light of 600 to 700 ft-c was more effective than white light of 60 to 70 ft-c. The white light was much more effective when divided into 2 equal exposures given 8 to 12 hours apart. These results suggest an increase in light sensitivity with regard to flower induction about 8 to 10 hours after the start of the light period.