Basic Information for Varietal Improvement of Crown Flower (<I>Calotropis gigantea</I>)

Abstract

The morphological study of Calotropis gigantea, white and purple varieties, was conducted and found that its flower had perfect type with valvate shape. The pollen formed into pollinium, situated on the edge but slightly lower than the pistil. Each flower had 1 pistil consisting of two styles fused into one at the top, ovary had 2 carpels. The vascular bundles were bicollateral. Both varieties had chromosome number 2n=22. Four combinations of crossing found unsuccessful though with assistances of various pollination methods. The environmental conditions had been suspected to be the cause. The variation of flower colour and shape from the seeds pods naturally pollinated of both varieties was found that the white variety gave all white with 4 flower characters while the purple variety gave white and purple with 9 flower characters.