The effects of picloram and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid on induction of red coloured callus from celosia plumosa, an attractive ornamental plant

Celosia plumosais an attractive ornamental plant having flame-like flowers and is used traditionally as a medicinal herb. This paper deals with thered-coloured callus induction from the root, stem and leaf explants when cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different concentrations of auxin picloram and 2,4- dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), applied singly. When explants were cultured on MS media supplemented with 6.0 mg/l picloram, the highest amount of red-coloured callus (0.49±0.26 g) was from leaf explants and the lowest (0.09±0.02 g) from stem explants. However, the highest amount of red-coloured callus (0.69±0.13 g) was achieved on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with 1.5 mg/l 2,4-D from stem explants, while the lowest (0.13±0.06 g) from root explants was cultured on 0.5 mg/l 2,4-D. Generally, the optimum concentration for red-coloured callus formation using picloram (6.0 mg/l) was higher compared to 2,4-D (1.5 mg/l 2,4-D).