Chilling symptoms in Heliconia spp.
There is an increasing demand on the international market for Heliconia inflorescences, which are considered "tropical
flowers", with attractive and lasting tropical beauty. Commercialization to long distance markets requires transportation
in low temperatures in order to inhibit the flower senescence processes. However, low temperatures may cause chilling
to the plant tissue. The objective of this experiment was to describe the chilling symptoms to the cut flowers of three
different heliconia genotypes (Heliconia bihai, H. wagnerianaand H. caribaea x H. bihai "Carib Flame"). The experiment
design was completely randomized design and three treatments, with seven replications for the first evaluation and five
replications for the second evaluation. The heliconia cut flowers were exposed to three different treatments for 72
hours: control treatment (laboratory room temperature 25 ºC and relative humidity 60%) and display refrigerator at 2ºC, with and without cardboard box for transportation. The chilling symptoms were described comparing, through the
refrigerator display, the treated flowering stems with the control treatment. The temperature of 2ºC, with or without
cardboard box, induced the following symptoms: burn aspect in the center of the bracts, dark spots on the insertion area
of the bracts to the rachis, and wilting on the leaf petiole ends and on the inflorescence bases.