At 23:59 +0100 4/29/02, David Hershey wrote:
>In 1955, Ulrich (Plant Physiology 30:250-257) kept a
>biennial sugar beet alive for 41 months by preventing
>it from flowering by not vernalizing it. Does anyone
>know of a similar study that kept annual plants alive
>long after their normal lifespans by preventing them
>from flowering?
Well, there's the famous "Maryland Mammoth" tobacco story, where the
mutant plant with the extremely short inducing photoperiod didn't
flower. I'm not sure how long the plant actually lived, but it was
quite a bit longer than the average tobacco plant.
-W2
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