Abstract
Cardamine yezoensis Maxim., an edible wild Brassicaceae plant, is mainly found along river banks in the mountains of Hokkaido, Japan. For the purpose of domesticating this plant as a novel vegetable, an asexual propagation method for C. yezoensis nursery plants utilizing in vitro culture and appropriate hydroponic culture conditions was investigated. Leaf sections from wild plants were successfully regenerated in vitro using a combination of 0 to 1.0 μM 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 0.1 to 1.0 μM 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) as growth regulators. Nursery plants of uniform size were obtained using the following 2-step in vitro culture process. Asexual propagation was achieved by incubating approximately 1 × 1 mm leaf blade and petiole sections excised from in vitro plantlets in a medium containing 0 to 0.1 μM 2,4-D and 0.1 μM BA as growth regulators. This was followed by successive subculture of axillary buds of propagated plants in a medium containing 0.04 to 0.44 μM (0.01 to 0.1 mg·L-1) BA as a growth regulator. Well-grown edible plants were harvested after 60 days of hydroponic culture with liquid fertilizer at an electrical conductivity of 0.5 to 1.0 dS·m-1.
