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Variability in Cuphea viscosissima Jacq. collected in east-central United States
Industrial Crops and Products
  • W. W. Roath, United States Department of Agriculture
  • Mark P. Widrlechner, United States Department of Agriculture
  • R. Kleiman, United States Department of Agriculture
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-1-1994
DOI
10.1016/0926-6690(94)90069-8
Abstract
Accessions of Cuphea viscosissima were collected from the central and east-central U.S. during two field explorations, one in 1987 and the other in 1989. Characterization and evaluation data of accessions collected in 1987 have been reported earlier. This paper reports the results of characterization and evaluation trials of the 1989 collections. Thirty-one of these accessions were grown for characterization and seed-increase plantings in 1990 and twenty-four of these in replicated evaluation trials in 1991 at Ames, Iowa. Morphological characters are rather uniform and resemble accessions collected in 1987. A new pale flowered form was identified. Glandular trichomes, which produce a sticky resin, occurred uniformly on the stems and flowers of all accessions, but their presence on leaves was variable. Fourteen of the thirty-one accessions lacked glandular trichomes on their leaves. Statistically significant variation occurred in plant height (59 to 90 cm) and mass (89 to 216 g), seed yield (0.9 to 7.0 g/plant), and the amounts of caprylic (8:0) (14.3 to 16.8%), capric (10:0) (68.0 to 71.9%), and lauric (12:0) (2.5 to 3.4%) acids. Variations in 100-seed weight, seed germination, and oil content were non-significant. The narrow range of variability found in these accessions collected from rather diverse ecological regions would suggest that C. viscosissima has occupied its native range rather recently, and has had little time to diversify genetically. The variability identified is being used in interspecific hybrid crosses with C. lanceolataAiton to develop a domestic source of medium-chain fatty acids.
Comments

This article is from Industrial Crops and Products 3 (1994): 217–223, doi:10.1016/0926-6690(94)90069-8.

Rights
Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
W. W. Roath, Mark P. Widrlechner and R. Kleiman. "Variability in Cuphea viscosissima Jacq. collected in east-central United States" Industrial Crops and Products Vol. 3 Iss. 32 (1994) p. 217 - 223
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mark_widrlechner/61/