GERBERA BREEDING
SN: Gerbera jamesonii Family: Asteraceae
• Gerbera is an important commercial flower grown throughout the world.
• It is a perennial herb native to South Africa and Asia.
• Gerbera produces very attractive flowers in various colours and ranked among the
top ten cut flowers.
• It is also called Transvaal daisy, Barberton daisy or African daisy.
• Besides as a cut flower, it is also very ideal for beds, borders, pots and rock
gardens.
• Gerbera was first discovered in 1878 in South Africa by botanist R. Jameson.
• The plant has since proved to be excellent for cultivation, and has become a popular
and wide-spread cut flower and pot plant.
• Nurseries are constantly producing new hybrids and cultivars, and new varieties are
being introduced to the market all the time.
Origin and history
• The first official description of the South African species Gerbera jamesonii was
made by J.D. Hooker in 1889 in Curtis Botanical Magazine
• The native distribution of this genus, comprising of about 30 species, extends to
Africa, Madagascar, and tropical Asia and South America (Bremer, 1994).
• In India, Gerbera spp are distributed from Kashmir to Nepal at an elevation of
1300 to 3200 m.
• It was named after German naturalist, Traugott Gerber.
• Gerbera jamesonii, native to Natal and Transvaal, and
• G. viridifolia from Cape were crossed by Lynch in 1887 after both these species
were introduced to Botanic Garden, Cambridge and the hybrid was named as G.
cantabrigensis.
• The breeding work was initiated in Europe, and later, the USA for cold hardiness in
temperate climates which was an early objective.
Botany
• Plants are stem less, tender perennial herbs.
• Flower heads are solitary; many flowered with conspicuous ray florets in 1 or 2 rows.
• The daisy like flowers are in wide range of colours including yellow, orange, cream
white, pink, red and various other intermediate shades.
• The flower stalks are long, thin and leafless.
• Based on flower heads, they are grouped into single, double and semi-double
cultivars.
• Commercially, doubles are more in demand than the singles.
• The double types are further divided into ‘standard’, ‘spider’ and ‘mini’ depending on
the size and shape of the flowers.
FLORAL BIOLOGY
• Flowers are solitary daisy like.
• It is characterized by head like inflorescence (capitula), which are condensed racemes
that composed of hundreds or thousands of flowers.
• More than one morphological flower type can exist in a single inflorescence. In
gerbera, these types are distinguished i.e. marginal ray florets, the central disc florets
and the intermediate trans florets.
• Gerbera flowers usually have five stamens and one pistil made of two joined carpels
to begin with.
• Mature ray and trans florets, however, have only female sex organs.
• That is because anthers arrest at intermediate stages of development resulting in the
formation of nonfunctional staminodes in ray and trans florets.
• Ray florets: Towards periphery, sessile, bracteate, pistillate or neutral, zygomorphic,
ligulate.
• Calyx: Absent or hairy pappus, or scaly persistent.
• Corolla: Petals 5, polypetalous, ligulate.
• Disc Florets: Towards the centre, bracteate, bisexual, actinomorphic, tubular,
epigynous.
• Calyx: Absent or modified into pappus.
• Corolla: Sepals 5, Gamosepalous, tubular.
• Androecium: Stamens 2, epipetalous, syngenesious dithecous.
• Gynoecium: Bicarpellary, Syncarpous, unilocular, one ovule, on basal placentation
style single, stigma bifid.
Anthesis and dehisance.
• The total flowering period varies from three to four weeks.
• In each head the florets at the margin of the head open first and the flowering
continues centripetally to the center.
• The florets open in the morning b/w 8 a.m and 10 a.m.
• The tubular corolla before the florets open, as soon as the florets open and anthers
dehisce.
• The daisy like flowers are in wide range of colors and various intermediate shades.
The double cultivars sometimes have bicoloured flowers.
• The flower stalks are long, thin and leaf less. Based on flower heads they may be
grouped into single, semi double and double cultivars.
• The height of plant may be up to 45 cm and may spread up to 60 cm.
Species and cultivars
• There are about 40 spp. of Gerbera of which G. jamesonii is cultivated.
• All the other species are half-hardy and perennial flowering.
• G. jamesonii: The plants are hairy throughout, base woody, leaves lobed, many
solitary orange scarlet heads, 7.5 – 12.5 cm across, borne from Nov – Feb.
• G. kunzeana: A himalayan sp. With scarce opening of flowers
• G. asplenifolia: Leaves are narrow, 10-15 cm long, deeply lobed, leathery, glossy
above, lobes roundish, concave, margins revolute. Flower heads purple on a hairy
scape
• G. aurantiaca: Leaves lanceolate to long, acute 12.5 – 15 cm long, entire/toothed.
Flower heads orange with yellowish anthers
• G. viridifolia: Leaves elliptical/ oblong/obtuse green on both sides and smooth or
nearly so. Flower heads dirty white and small.
• Qualitative and quantitative differences in flower flavonoids have been used for
discrimination between varieties (Booy, 1994).
• Anthocyanins and flavonoid copigments from ray florets have been found to be useful
for identification of gerbera cultivars (Booy, 1995).
Cultivars
Standard Gerbera:
Aida, Alegro, Arobella, Arosa, Aruba, Blue boy, Dalma, Danuta, Crossfire, Citrella,
Eclips, Foske, Gloria, Golden gate, Jaska, Lilabella, Magnun, Mara, Nevada, orion, Pink
elegance, Ramona, Ringo, Ruby red, Sangria, Sunanda, Shirley, Sunset, Tongo, Vino and
Zemba
Spider Gerbera: Chilli, Kontiki, Punky, Spanky, Spiky, Twanny and Vicky
Mini Gerbera: Alami, Bentley, Goldy, Jimmy, Lily, Nikky, Rosemary, Siby, Tweety,
Victory, Vrony and Winny.
Genetics
• Gerbera jamesonii is diploid (2n = 50) and the basic chromosome number (X) is 25.
• It is an out crossing species
• Increased plant as well as flower size was reported in tetraploids
• The plants of gerbera are grouped into three categories, viz.,
• (i) completely self-sterile,
• (ii) plants with distinct differences in seed set when pollination takes place
within an inflorescence, and
• (iii) when pollination takes place between neighboring inflorescence on the
same plant and plants in which these differences are less pronounced.
• The third category of plants are less favorable for production of large amount of
hybrid seed, since occurrence of selfing within the inflorescence
• Qualitative and quantitative differences in their flavonoid chemical markers
distinguished cultivars of very similar colours.
• Inheritance of flower colour is controlled by four factors —
• A causing intense red colour,
• a causing dull red colour,
• H causing A and a to be lighter in colour, and
• B which became evident in the absence of A, causing ivory or yellow colour
• Productivity is mainly determined by the additive effect of genes.
• Genes with additive effect have the principal role in flower character inheritance
• High heritability for inflorescence diameter and number of ray florets and relatively
low for disc diameter and stem length
• Self fertilization resulted in production of less number of viable seeds and of a high
proportion of plants with poor characteristics.
• Heterosis and heritability for ligule length were high and well correlated with the
certain other flower characters
Breeding
The criteria (Objectives) considered for the development of new gerbera selections are :
• To develop varieties with Ease of growing,
• To develop varieties with Uniformity in growth
• To develop verities suitable for green house/protected cultivation
• Length of the cultivation period
• Availability in various colours
• To develop varieties for improved yield and quality
• Compactness of growth.
• Uniformity and strength of flower stems
• To develop varieties resistant to various diseases and pests
Breeding Methods:
1. Introduction,
2. Selection,
3. Hybridization and
4. Mutation breeding
Introduction and selection:
• Through introduction Savanna and balma
• Numerous cultivars of gerbera have been evolved through hybridization.
• For breeding, flowers of G. jamesonii could be grouped into two types i.e. florets
narrower than 5 to 5.5 mm and those wider than 5.5 mm.
Hybridization
• Numerous cultivars of gerbera have been evolved through hybridization.
• Muller (1959) attempted to evolve varieties for flower form and colour, stem length
and stiffness, keeping quality, period of flowering and yield, resistance to biotic and
abiotic factors.
• Danhardt, 1966 developed 12 cultivars through hybridization and selection of which
cultivars Aktur, Migar and Atair showed high resistance of Phytophthora cryptogea
• Cantor (1993) reported that the gerbera clones G110 and G44 are useful material for
breeding.
• Leffring (1968) crossed several modern cultivars with wild species to develop a dark
centered large flowered hybrid. Further selection and back crossing stabilized the dark
centre and seedlings were true to type.
• Schiva (1980) attempted to evolve varieties for low temperature.
• Genotypes adapted to cool temperature were crossed with 20 genotypes having good
floral characters in pairs to give 10 full sub families.
• Progeny was raised and assessed for floral attributes.
• Deng and Harbaugh (2006) described two gerbera hybrids ‘UF Multi-flora Peach’ and
‘UF Multi-flora Pink Frost’ which possess novel flower colours and an intermediate
level of powdery mildew resistance. The plants produce multiple flowers and buds
resulting in plants with much colour and larger flowers. Both the cultivars are very
vigorous and produce large plants with a continuous supply of flowers.
• Chung et al. (2008) developed a new Gerbera hybrid cultivar ‘Summer Ring’ from a
cross between ‘Grandeur’ and ‘Nova Zemba’.
Mutation
• Mutation breeding has been successfully used to induce novel variants in case of
ornamentals, particularly for flower colour and shape.
• Walther and Sauer (1985) attempted X-ray irradiation (20 Gy) explants propagated in
vitro produced a 10 per cent mutation rate in foliage (number, size and form of leaves)
and flowers (stalk length, flower diameter, number and shape of the petals).
• High intensity of irradiation suppressed the plant growth (Walther and Sauer, 1985).
• Schiva et al. (1984) reported that Ethyl methyl sulphonate (EMS) was more effective
than sodium azide in inducing single gene mutations in seeds.
• Increasing the EMS concentration from 1% to 2% and that of sodium azide from 0.1
mM to 1 mM and the time decreased germination, growth, survival, frequency of
flowering plants and seed setting and number of seeds in the M1 generation and the
mutations occurring the M2 generation.
• Obtained a large non-lethal M2 population using low concentration of EMS at shorter
duration.
Biotechnology
• Jain et al. (1998) discussed possible approaches for creating genetic variability for the
selection of useful plants, with reference to gerbera using mutagenesis, somaclonal
variation and genetic transformation.
• Somaclonal variation may arise due to genetic or epigenetic changes.
• The latter being unstable and not transmitted to the progeny has to be identified before
plants are multiplied for large-scale production using biochemical (isozymes) and
molecular markers (RAPD, RFLP, AFLP).
• It is suggested that genetic engineering has yet to provide a cost effective and reliable
products and, moreover, unstable gene expression, especially for flower colour is a
major problem in transgenic plants under field conditions.
IIHR varieties
• a) IIHR99-1: Gerbera half-sib selection, has a potential to grow outside the polyhouse
Arka Red
The flowers are bright red in colour
Double in nature
It is best suitable for growing outside
It is suitable for both beds and cut flower
It yields 360 flower per sq meter per year
It can be planted anytime
Arka Nesara (IIHR 8-45)
Double type flowers with red group 50A, suitable for cut flower and flower arrangement. It
was identified for release by Institute VTIC.
Arka Ashwa (IIHR 3-34)
Double type flowers with red purple group 68D, suitable for cut flower and flower
arrangement. It was identified for release by Institute VTIC
Arka Pink
Average Stalk length more than 62 cm
Average Flower diameter more than 11 cm
Average number of flower are more than 2.8 flower/plant/month
Average vase life is more than 7.2 days
Arka White
Gerbera variety, Semi double flower with white colour and green disc
Average Stalk length more than 60 cm
Average Flower diameter more than 10 cm
Average number of flower are more than2.7 flower/plant/month
Average vase life is more than 7.0 days
Arka Krishika
Flowers are double type with yellow colour
Yield: 400 to 425 flowers /m2 /year
Use: Cut flower and floral decoration
Important character: Suitable for open field cultivation
TNAU Varieties: YCD-1 and YCD-2
Colour wise varieties
Varieties Colour
Danaellen, Alberino, Uranus, fredeking & Nadja. Yellow
Pink Elegance, Fredonzella, Terraqueen, Valentine & Fredaisy. Pink
Dalma, Cassiana, Vesta, Dusty & Fredorella. Red
Flamingo Pale rose
Labalga Lilac
Devel, Cream clementine & Maron clementine
Carolli Light
Flavia Light yellow
Lexus Brownish orange
Delpi White
