GMB

Every flower has its season, and the timingis often determined by daylength. Plants that blossom in the lengthening days of spring are called long-day plants (LDP) while those that flower in late summer and autumn are called short-day plants (SDP).

Just over a century ago (1920s), USDA scientists H.A. Allard and W.W. Garner induced flowering in the promising Maryland Mammoth tobacco variety by placing the plants in the dark at the start or end of the day.

It soon transpired that flowering in tobaccoand other SDP is induced by a long night rather than a short day. Moreover, floweringcan be prevented with a short light-break in the middle of an other wiselong night. Conversely, a light-break can induce flowering in LDP. Theeffects are due to red light and can be reversed by far-red light, a findingthat led to the discovery of the photoreversible pigment @phytochrome.

The effects of an interrupted night were demonstrated dramatically in 1947, when Trinidad farmers complained that rice plants failed to flower following construction of an oil refinery adjacent to their paddy fields. The night-time oil flare was extinguished and the farmers reaped a late harvest in November that same year!

Controlof flowering with shade and interrupted nights are now tools used byhorticulturists to meet seasonal demands.

Chrysanthemumsare SDPs that flower in late summer. In China they are in full bloom for Chung Yeong, also called the Chrysanthemum festival.

Besides their beauty, chrysanthemums are also medicinal plants with scientifically-proven anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and anti-microbial activities attributed to constituents that include linarin and other flavonoids.

The chrysanthemum extract manufactured by Green Mountain Biotech is made from dried flowers harvested when their bioactivity is thought to peak. Itis highly likely that the same day-night signals that control flowering alsoprovide for optimal accumulation of the sought-after phytochemicals.