Strelitzia (Strelitzia reginae Banks.) is a tropical ornamental plant of expressive commercial value. Its development however is slow and the production of seedlings is reduced. Thus the use of tissue culture is an alternative for its propagation. The objective of this work was to evaluate the in vitro behavior of this specie as well as the viability of the in vitro propagation technique. For the in vitro establishment, leaf segments, axillaries buds, and immature embryos were used as explants. No in vitro development was observed using leaf segments and axillaries buds as explants. The period of seed harvest and embryo development in different sucrose concentrations and culture medium and the use of different concentrations of BAP were evaluated during embryo culture. The best period for seed harvest and embryo extraction was observed to be 20 weeks after pollination. Variations in the MS medium concentrations have no effect on embryo development. Higher shoot development can be obtained using MS medium supplemented with 20.64 g/L sucrose. The addition of BAP produced plants with reduced size.
Strelitzia; micropropagation; Strelitzia reginae; embryo culture
