Effects of Coconut Milk and Kinetin on the Development of the Protonema and Bud Formation in Pohlia nutans

Abstract

IN previous experiments1 on the effects of kinetin on the development of the protonema and the formation of shoot-buds in Pohlia nutans (Hedw.) Lindb., it was found that buds were formed earlier in cultures containing kinetin and it seemed that in this respect its action was similar to red light2. Buds were not produced on the protonema growing on a basal medium under blue light. Since certain responses of higher plants to coconut milk are analogous to those induced by kinetin, for example, the induction of cell-division in mature tissue and the differentiation of a complete plant from a mass of such dividing cells, it seemed that it might be of interest to study the effects of coconut milk alone and in combination with kinetin on the development of the protonema and the initiation of shoot-buds in Pohlia nutans.