A STUDY ON IN VITRO CLONAL PROPAGATION OF MEI FLOWER (PRUNUS MUME SIEB. ET ZUCC.)

Mei flower (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zuce.) is native to China and a woody flower famous at home and abroad. It consists of 200 varieties or more. In our experiments on in vitro clonal propagation of this species, a basal medium formulated by ourselves is used with combinations of the phytohormones. Clumps with multiple buds are formed from the adult trees'axillary buds as explants cultured on the medium containing BA 2mg/l, ZT 1mg/l and IAA 0.2mg/l. The clumps subcultured on the same medium for 20 days grow into abnormal shoots. When the abnormal shoots or the clumps are transferred to the medium containing BA 0.25mg/l, IAA 0.05mg/l and given a 25-day subculture, they develope into normal vigorous shoots. Rooting occurres on shoots transferred to the rooting medium. Each plantlet grow out 2—5 yellowish roots from the base of stems. 80% of rooted plantlets are successfully transferred and grow normally in pot-culture soil and under glasshouse conditions.