Febjislami S, Kurniawati A, Melati M, Wahyu Y. 2019. Morphological characters, flowering and seed germination of the Indonesian medicinal plant Orthosiphon aristatus. Biodiversitas 20: 328-337. Orthosiphon aristatus (Blume) Miq is a popular medicinal plant in Southeast Asia. The morphological variation of O. aristatus is narrow and information on flowering and seed germination is limited. This study aimed to determine the morphological characters, flowering and seed germination of O. aristatus. The study was conducted on 19 accessions (ex situ collections) of O. aristatus from West, Central and East Java. It was found that the differences in morphological and flowering characters were mainly based on shape and color. The dominant stem color is strong yellowish green mixed with deep purplish pink in different proportions. The dominant leaf shape was medium elliptic. O. aristatus flower has three kinds of colors: purple, intermediate and white (the most common color). O. aristatus has heterostyled flower with a long-styled morph. The stigma has two shapes: open and close (the dominant shape). The open and close stigma was found in Tuban accession, the open stigma was found in Pamekasan accession. O. aristatus accessions have a narrow diversity of 84% similarity rate. O. aristatus started flowering at 4-5 weeks after planting and blooming 2-3 weeks later. O. aristatus seeds begin to germinate on the fourth day and take about eight days to grow from seedling to become complete sprouts. Count I ranged from day 5-6 and count II on days 10-11. Tuban accession has the highest germination rate of 72.97%. The results of this research can be considered as new information, regarding information about the diversity of morphological, flowering characters and the ability of O. aristatus seed to germinate.

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Increasing corm production of iles-iles (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume) through genetic improvement is important for increasing farmers’ income. However, the study on variety development is rarely reported. Here, yield evaluation of the second growing period was conducted at IPB Experimental Station Leuwikopo Farm, Bogor, Indonesia (-6.5647419, 106.7220331, 17.25z) from August 2017 to July 2018 in order to select candidate clone with high corm production. One-year-old corms of 21 F1 accessions were planted under 55% shading net with four replications. The parent population was set as a control. Results showed that accessions exhibited variation in corm size. The parent population produced corm ranged 622.3-908.3 g in weight (on average 764.2 g). The pooled accessions produced corm 180.7-1527.5 g in weight, corm diameter 71.0-145.8 mm, and corm height 46.6-87.6 mm. Nine accessions produced 5.91-99.88% higher average corms weight than the parent, i.e., BKB, BS, CF, CK, CR, DPG, DPP, SBM, and SHJ. Based on 30% as the basis of corm weight improvement, we concluded that five accessions, i.e., CK, CR, DPG, DPP, and SBM as prospective candidate clones. These accessions could be further evaluated in the third growing period to select best candidates of new variety of A. muelleri.Keywords: Agamosporous, Araceae, breeding strategy, new variety, productivity

Okra fruit contains phenolic compounds as natural antioxidant. The aim of this research was to analyze the effect of different types of fertilizers on production and quality of two okra varieties. The experiment was conducted in October 2017 to February 2018 at Bogor Agricultural University experimental field at Leuwikopo, Darmaga, Bogor (-6033’49.3”SL, 106043’30.7’’EL). The experiment used nested randomized complete block design with 2 factors and 4 replications. The first factor consisted of two okra varieties with different colour (red and green okra). The second factor was fertilizer types consisted of no fertilizer, organic (cow manure), combination of organic + inorganic, and inorganic fertilizer. The results showed that fertilizer types significantly affected plant height and fruit N content but did not affect fruit production. Red okra had a higher plant height, lower number of leaves and leaf K content than those of the green okra. The interaction effect of both factors was significant on total phenolic content in fruit and P content in leaf. The highest total phenolic content in fruit was showed by red okra with inorganic fertilizer, although it was not significantly different to those of red okra with combination organic + inorganic fertilizer, and also to green okra with organic fertilizer. The highest P content in leaf was found in red okra without fertilizer, however it was not significantly different to red okra with combination organic + inorganic fertilizer, green okra with organic fertilizer, and green okra with inorganic fertilizer.Keywords: inorganic fertilizer, leaf nutrient, organic fertilizer, phenolic compound

ABSTRAK Umbi iles-iles (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume) adalah sumber glukomanan, bahan penting pada industri obatobatan, makanan, dan minuman. Peningkatan permintaan glukomannan telah mendorong perluasan areal budi daya di Indonesia, namum demikian, ketersediaan benih untuk mendukung hal tersebut masih terbatas. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh umur umbi, jarak tanam, dan kedalaman tanam pada produksi biji. Dua percobaan simultan dilakukan di bawah naungan paranet 65% di Kebun Percobaan Leuwikopo, IPB dari JuniNovember 2015. Percobaan pertama menggunakan umbi umur 0 (bulbils) 1, 2, 3, dan 4 tahun. Percobaan kedua menggunakan umbi umur 3 tahun yang disusun secara faktorial pada peubah jarak tanam (0 × 0 cm dan 50 × 50 cm) dan kedalaman tanam (0 dan 5 cm di bawah permukaan tanah). Hasil pengamatan menunjukkan bahwa pembungaan tanaman iles-iles tergantung umur umbi, 96% dari umbi umur 3 tahun berbunga dan tidak ada bunga yang muncul dari umbi umur 0, 1, dan 4 tahun, sementara 8% umbi dari umur 2 tahun berbunga. Jarak tanam tidak memengaruhi pertumbuhan bunga, dan kedalaman tanam 5 cm nyata meningkatkan produksi biji. Implikasinya, produksi biji dapat ditingkatkan dengan mengunakan umbi besar umur 3 tahun, cara tanam rapat, dan kedalaman tanam 5 cm. Perlu penelitian lanjut kualitas biji yang dihasilkan pada manipulasi agronomi tersebut. Kata kunci: jarak tanam, kedalaman tanam, pertumbuhan akar, umbi berbunga, umur umbi