effects of sodium nitroprusside and potassium silicate on the growth and flowering of gazania rigens (l.)

Gazania, belongs to the family asteraceae, is widely grown in gardens and other environments. the purpose of this study was to evaluated the effects of sodium nitroprusside and potassium silicate treatments on the growth and flowering of gazania. for these purposes, a completely randomized design was used, with three levels of sodium nitroprusside (snp) (25, 50 and 100 mu;m/l), potassium silicate (ps) at the concentration of 25, 50 and 100 mg/l and control. some important traits such as fresh and dry weight of shoot and root, number of flowers, root volume, longest root length, plant height, cell membrane stability index, petiole carotenoid, leaf chlorophyll, protein, superoxide dismutase (sod) and peroxidase (pod) enzyme activity and flower longevity. it was observed that plan that shoot fresh/dry weight, flower number, root length, plant height, carotenoid, leaf chlorophyll was increased under 100 mg/l ps treatment. the results suggest that the application of 50 mu;m/l snp has favorable effects on the raise root fresh/dry weight, root volume, cell membrane stability index, protein, sod and pod activity. over the growth stage, 50 mg/l ps was found to be the best treatment to maintain flower longevity with 7.2 days.