Germination test and ornamental potential of different basil cultivars (Ocimum spp.)

Abstract

Basil (Ocimum spp.) is an essential oil producing plant and it is used as a condiment for diferent foods, besides serving as raw material for medicinal purposes. This crop has also been showing great importance as an ornamental plant in recent years. However, basil lacks studies concerning its different usages with special regards to its ornamental potential. Therefore, this study aimed at evaluating the vegetative development and the ornamental potential of the basil cultivars ‘Grecco a Palla’ (O. minimum), ‘Alfavaca Basilicão Vermelho’ (O. basilicum), and ‘Thai Basil’ (O. basilicum), under protected cultivation. The following characteristics were evaluated: germination percentage, germination speed index, plant canopy diameter (cm), leaf and inflorescence length (cm), plant height (cm), and fresh and dry leaf mass (g). The ornamental potential was estimated based on visual evaluations of plant canopy volume; leaf shape, texture, size, and color; stem and flower color; and number of days to flowering. Cultivar ‘Thai Basil’ presented the highest leaf dry mass and ‘Grecco a Palla’ showed the highest germination speed index and seed germination percentage. All cultivars bloomed within 60 days after planting and exhibited color and brightness variability, which are desirable traits for a landscape composition. ‘Grecco a Palla’ stood out for its short and compact inflorescences, dwarf size and globular shape when grown as a potted plant. The studied cultivars demonstrated favorable characteristics for ornamental usage based on visual assessments.

Desempenho da germinação de sementes de seis diferentes variedades de manjericão (Ocimum basilicum spp.)

“…Thus, it appears that the proposed methodology works in the experimental quality control of seed germination. A previous studies presented that cultivar 'Grecco a Palla' (V6) presented superior seed germination percentage and seedling development when compared to 'Thai Basil' and 'Alfavaca Basilicão Vermelho' (V2) (França et al, 2017), in agreement with our results. Low %G values are quite worrying in terms of costs.…”

Study of the of Morphological Variations among some Ocimum Species and Subspecies Grown in Sudan

“…The shortest number of days to start of flowering i.e. earliest (39 days) was recorded s from O. americanum L. Such variation in number of days to start of flowering was also reported by França et al(2017) who indicated that 'Grecco a Palla' cultivar bloomed 40 days after sowing, whereas 'Thai Basil' developed inflorescences 48 days after sowing, Alfavaca Basilicão Vermelho' displayed inflorescences 55 days after sowing.…”

Agronomic, Sensory and Essential Oil Characterization of Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) Accessions

“…It was verified that plant diameter directly interferes in the quantity and volume of leaves, being an essential characteristic for both the commercialization of the plant in natura and for oil extraction. For the extraction of essential oil, plants with a greater number of leaves-that is, greater diameter-are of interest as it will be extracted from these structures [25]. For the percentage of branches with inflorescence, inflorescence branch length, seed maturation and weight, no significant differences were observed among the accessions.…”

“…It was verified that plant diameter directly interferes in the quantity and volume of leaves, being an essential characteristic for both the commercialization of the plant in natura and for oil extraction. For the extraction of essential oil, plants with a greater number of leaves-that is, greater diameter-are of interest as it will be extracted from these structures [25]. Internode length and leaf blade width and length were higher in the broad leaf accessions than in the those with narrow leaf, and the mean of leaf blade length in the broad leaf accession was of 2.92 cm, being higher than in the narrow leaf accession (1.38 cm).…”