TY - JOUR AU - França, Rozineide Pereira Alves de AU - Botini, Auclar Felipe AU - Koch, Ana Kelly AU - Caetano, Ana Paula S. AU - Silva, Ivone Vieira da AU - Krause, Willian AU - Silva, Celice Alexandre PY - 2020/05/01 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Floral and reproductive biology of Alpinia purpurata (Vieill.) K. Schum. (Zingiberaceae): An important tropical ornamental plant JF - Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Hortícolas JA - Rev. Colomb. Cienc. Hortic VL - 14 IS - 2 SE - Ornamental section DO - 10.17584/rcch.2020v14i2.10747 UR - https://revistas.uptc.edu.co/index.php/ciencias_horticolas/article/view/10747 SP - 257-266 AB - <p><em>Alpinia</em> spp. play an important ecological role as a source of nectar in the understory of tropical and subtropical forests, where many of these species are common. The perennial species <em>Alpinia purpurata </em>(Vieill.) K. Schum. is native to the tropical rainforests of Asia and has been used as an ornamental cut plant due to its lush inflorescences and post-harvest durability. The internal and external morphology, floral biology, and reproductive system of four <em>A. purpurata</em> cultivars were investigated in order to contribute to studies of genetic improvement of the species. The inflorescence of <em>A. purpurata</em> is terminal, globose, and has flowers protected by colorful and showy bracts. The white flowers are tubular bisexual. The floral anthesis of the four cultivars lasted 9 to 12 h and pollen viability was above 80% throughout the pre-flowering period in all cultivars evaluated. During anthesis, stigma and anther crest were receptive due to the presence of stigmatic fluid. Fruiting of the cultivars was observed after hand cross-pollination, whereas no fruiting was recorded in treatments involving spontaneous self-pollination, hand self-pollination or geitonogamy. Natural pollination induced low fruiting, suggesting low pollinator availability in the studied area. The obligatory xenogamy of <em>A. purpurata</em> is a facilitator for the development of new hybrids for the ornamental plant market.</p> ER -