eChapter Name: Phlox
9789389130812
eBook Name: BREEDING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY OF FLOWERS: SET OF 2 VOLS. (SET PRICE)
by Anil K. Singh, Dr. A.K. Singh
Phlox is a perennial and annual flowering plant belongs to family Polemoniaceae. “Phlox” is a Greek word meaning “flame” and was most likely named thusly due to its bright and vivid colours. Phlox originally came from North America and was available in England by the early 1800s. It quickly grew in popularity and today it is still found growing wild in gardens across the world. Among perennials, Phlox paniculata, Phlox divariecata, Phlox glaberrima are earliest species to be cultivated and reached to England and France from Virginia (USA) in the early 18th century. Among annuals, Phlox drummondii is commonly grown in India. Annual phlox is propagated by seeds, whereas, cutting is used as propagating material for perennial species. Phlox is grown in the garden as bedding and border plant for its dramatic, fragrant, showy and long blooming flowers. The colour range includes white, rose, pink, purple, lavender, violet, pale blue, bright red and magenta. Some flowers are bicoloured.
ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION
Phlox is native to North America except one species i.e. Phlox sibirica which originated from Siberia (Meyer, 1944). They are found mostly in North America in diverse habitats from alpine Tundra to open woodland and prairie. Some flower in spring, others in summer and fall. Many are fragrant.
The diversity of species and genera is particularly high in California, USA, where 17 genera and over 170 species occur. Significant diversity also exists elsewhere in the world. A principle lineage consisting of Cantua, Cobaea, and Bonplandia is distributed natively only in Mexico, central America and northwestern South America. In Eastern North America, the genus Phlox is unusually diverse compared to the rest of the family. Other than members of Phlox, only a few species occur natively east of the Mississippi river in the United States, such as Ipomopsis rubra, Collomia linearis and a few Polemonium. A few Phlox and Polemonium species are also found natively in Eurasia. Central and South America, particularly the western regions of South America, are also home to some members of the phlox family. A small number of species from several genera that are most abundant in North America, such as Collomia, Gilia, Navarretia and Leptosiphon are found only in western South America, indicating multiple instances of long distance dispersal (Grant, 1959 and Morrell et al., 2000). Occasional species, such as skunkweed (Navarretia squarrosa) and Collomia grandiflora, have become weedy in parts of Europe and Australia and some cultivated species, such as members of Cobaea, have become naturalized outside their native range (Grant, 1959, Hussey et al., 1997, Pysek et al., 2002 and Anon., 2003).