Partitioning of ¹³C‐label in mature asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) plants

Abstract

Partitioning patterns of ¹³C‐labelled assimilate were studied in mature field‐grown plants of three asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) cultivars. Plants were labelled in January and destructively harvested at different stages of the summer fern growth phase and in early spring. There was very little new fern establishment after January, so the majority of the assimilated label was translocated from the labelled fern to the storage roots, and in smaller amounts to buds on the rhizome, from where it was later remobilised into new spear growth in the spring. The label was confined to a physiological unit composed of the labelled fern, the rhizome from which it grew, and buds, roots, and new shoot material associated with that rhizome. Similar patterns of ¹³C distribution within the physiological unit were observed in three cultivars differing in spear yield.

Key words:

• asparagus
• Asparagus officinalis
• carbohydrate partitioning
• ¹³C
• label

Notes

Corresponding author.