Journal of Taiwan Agricultural Research

Author:Wei-Ting Tsai, Szu-Lun Lai, Shan-Ni Chen, Ting-En Dai, Ting-Fang Hsieh, and Chun-Tang Lu*

Abstract:

    Forty unspiked plants of Phalaenopsis amabilis (L.) Blume were collected from each of three orchid nurseries as plant materials. The external traits of each plant were measured and the relationships between leaf and fowering qualities were assessed. The data collected from traits of 6 leaves and 6 fower of all plants were analyzed by canonical correlation. Results showed that the correlation between leaf-trait group and fower quality-trait group was sig-nifcant. The frst two canonical correlation coeffcients were 0.88 and 0.56. Higher values of canonical correlation coeffcients for leaf traits were in the thickness of second leaf (LT2), the width of frst leaf (LW1), the width of second leaf (LW2), and the width of third leaf (LW3). For fower quality traits, the coeffcients were higher in the total fower number (TFN), the spike length (SL), the spike diameter (SD), the fower size (FS), the spike number (SN), and the petal thickness (PT). The canonical variables for fower quality traits were signifcantly affected by leaf traits in groups of LT2, LW1, LW2 and LW3. In other words, better fowering quality could be expected with leaf traits of larger leaf area in the frst three leaves and thicker leaf in the second leaf. These indicators could be used as non-destructive indices for selecting phalaenopsis plants that will have higher fower quality at a later time.

Key words:Phalaenopsis, External trait, Flower quality, Canonical correlations analysis

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