Studies on the propagation and behavior of some biotypes of Mirabilis jalapa L.

Nowadays, worldwide, but also in Romania, there is an enormous demand for Mirabilis jalapa L., a popular ornamental plant for landscaping design, due to the beauty of its flowers, but also for its use in traditional medicine. This study highlights some contributions regarding generative propagation in Mirabilis jalapa L., which is appreciated, especially as a decorative plant, alone or in different combinations, but also for its uses, mainly in medicine. Experience shows that Mirabilis jalapa L. can be easily used as a teaching plant in the practical study of plant morphology and physiology, as well as in the demonstration of certain genetic particularities. In this experiment, seeds from 4 biotypes with flowers of different colors (red, pink, white, and yellow) were tested for germination percentage and number of viable plants, under greenhouse conditions. The morphological characteristics of theseeds and the plants obtained from these were also evaluated. The maximum germination percentage was 100% for the red flower variant, followed by the yellow flower variant, with a percentage of 95%. The germination interval is between 6 and 20 days, with a maximum at 15 days after sowing.The most vigorous was the white-flowered variant, which had a maximum height (110.3 cm) and also the largest diameter (60.9 cm). The seeds are relatively large, generally ranging between 6.6 and 8.8 mm in height and 4.0 and 5.7 mm in diameter, respectively.