Crop Science and Agriculture

Benguet lily (Lilium philippinense) is an endemic lily in the Philippines with high potential of being commercialized but with declining population due to human activities. These prodded the conduct of this study to provide baseline information on the comparative phenology, morphology and anatomy of wild and in vitro propagated Benguet lily that was grown under natural habitat and greenhouse condition and to illustrate their flower development. On the phenological stages, in vitro propagated plants require a longer period to complete a growth stage. Morphologically, wild plants in the natural habitat and in vitro propagated plants under greenhouse condition performed better compared to those in switched growing conditions. In the morphometry, diff erences in both appeared to be highly attributable to the growing conditions, while for the pigmentation, pure white petal, bright yellow pollen grains and light green stem of wild Benguet lily remained unchanged regardless of growing conditions. Similarly, in vitro propagated lily maintained the tinge of maroon in the midrib of the petals, base of leaves, base of stems and maroon colored pollen grains were unaff ected by growing conditions. Anatomically, wild and in vitro propagated plants were similar except for the presence of pigmented cells interspersed in the epidermis of stem, leaves, flower and pollen grain. In flower development, floral part initiation starts in the outside whorl to the formation of gynoecium. In a singular flower, the floral meristem is located apically but with more flowers, ensuing floral meristem develops on the lateral side of the first flower and of at a later growth stage.