Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Volume LX
Written by Costel VÎNĂTORU, Bianca ZAMFIR, Camelia BRATU, Liliana BĂDULESCU, Viorica LAGUNOVSCHI
Luffa cylindrica belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family, being an annual, herbaceous plant, multiplied by seeds. It is a well-defined genre, alongside with the species L. acutangula, L echinata,, L. graveolens, with their origin along with L. cylindrica in the tropics. And the species l. operculata, l. quinquefida and l. astorii are originating in the neo-tropical zone. Of these, these two species originating in India, L. cylindrica and L. acutangula are most common. They have been acclimatized for starters in India and America, then expanded and grown on a large scale for their immature fruits used as vegetables. With the passage of time, the areas of usage have diversified greatly. In Romania, the most known species is Luffa cylindrica, plant introduced in our country after the 1960s, at V.R.D.S. Buzau by dr. ing. Marcela Iosifescu. Though it has been successfully acclimatized in our country, especially in the protected spaces, promoting this culture was quite slow. At present, the spaces occupied by this species are pretty small, insignificant. After 1996, researches regarding the Luffa species were taken over time by the Laboratory of Improvement, aiming the acclimatization of new species and obtaining new creations with distinct biological phenotypical expression. Along with Luffa cylindrica, a special attention was given to the acclimation of new species, of which Luffa acutangula was successfully acclimated. The research continued with the crossing of L. acutangula x L. cylindrica species. By this crossing was obtained an F1 hybrid with intermediate sized fruit and high density of the fibre. From the segregation of the F1 hybrid were obtained in 6 new families, lineage with distinct features and numerous intermediate forms have been removed in the process of improvement. Varieties of Luffa acutangula have very large fruit, in green have recorded an average of 119 cm, unlike Luffa cylindrica, which recorded an average of 56 cm. F1 hybrid has an average length of fruit length of 65 cm. New varieties derived from the crossing of species ranged from L1 to L5 with 91 cm and 48 cm, the smallest value. The researches were completed with the obtaining of new genotypes Luffa cylindrica and L. acutangula with distinct features.
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