Zamioculcas zamiifolia novel plants with dwarf features and variegated leaves induced by colchicine

Zamioculcas zamiifolia (Lodd.) Engl. is an export-oriented, potted foliage plant used for indoor scaping. Since it shows high environmental and pest tolerability, it does not need much attention in cultivation. Thus, the aim of present study was to develop stable, novel mutants of Z. zamiifolia induced by colchicine (a mutagenic chemical) treatment. Three leaflet types (rooted leaflets with tuber, tuber initiating leaflets without roots and freshly harvested leaflets) were applied separately with four concentrations of colchicine ranging from 0 to 0.4% to induce mutations in a 70% shaded greenhouse. The experiment was conducted for three generations. Results showed that at 0.4% and 0.04% colchicine, plant size decreased in some leaflets, thus producing extreme dwarf and semi dwarf plants, respectively, which are suitable to be used as table-top, miniature ornamental plants. Some leaflets at 0.004% colchicine produced yellow and light green variegated leaflets. According to our knowledge, this is the first report of producing Z. zamiifolia plants with variegated leaves using colchicine. Other than molecular breeding, which is costly and takes a longer period, conventional breeding cannot be employed to generate new plants, since there is only one species under this genus. As such, use of chemical mutagens such as colchicine would provide a rapid means of developing new plant types of this species with attractive morphological features since there is a very narrow range of variants available in the world.