I30 



of seedling' sweet potatoes grown at The New York Botanical 

 Garden. 



The blossoming of sweet potatoes in New Jersey 



During the past season (summer of 1925) in the New Jersey 

 areas of sweet potato culture there was rather heavy blooming of 

 certain varieties, a condition rarely seen or possibly never seen 

 before in this region. The writer is indebted to Professor R. F. 

 Poole, of the New Jersey State Experiment Station, for the fol- 

 lowing record. 



"I observed very closely the blooming of the White Yam 

 variety of sweet potatoes this past summer, since flowers were 

 produced on this variety in several fields. The blooming was 

 frequently very great, since in some instances single vines pro- 

 duced as many as twenty-tive flowers. As early as the first of 

 August, many flowers were observed on the White Yam and 

 Golden Gem, a strain of the Porto Rican variety, w^hich were 

 grown side by side in the same field, and on the Porto Rican and 

 Triumph varieties in other fields, but in no case were seed pro- 

 duced. 1 have never seen flowers on the Jersey varieties. How- 

 ever, some of the oldest growers say that they have seen them 

 bloom once or twice in the many years that they have been grow'- 

 ing this cro]i. No attempt was made to cross-pollinate the varie- 

 ties that did bloom, although flowers were present on the two 

 varieties at the same time. The blooming was most profuse on 

 plants that were stunted. On areas where the pox disease, caused 

 by Cyfospora Batatas, had injured the roots severely, and on ex- 

 tremel}' acid or extremely alkaline soils there was heavy blooming. 

 On adjacent areas, where the vine growth was normal to heavy, 

 there were very few flowers ])r(»(luce(l on these same varieties." 



Previous to this season it appears that flowers have only occa- 

 sionally been produced by sweet potatoes grown in New Jersey. 

 Tlie data on the blooming habits of this group of plants (pub- 

 lished in the paper already cited) show clearly tlial many it not 

 all varieties bloom freelx' in the tropics. In the more northern 

 belt of their culture sweet potatoes thrive vegetatively and yield 

 good crops of roots under environmental conditions that do not 

 favor the formation of flowers. Evidently in 1925 certain con- 

 ditions which favor blooming were in some way realized in New 

 Jersey. No fruits and seeds were ap])arenlly oittained l»ui no 

 cross-pollinations between varieties were attemi)te(I and e\i(kntly 

 different varieties were not interplanted sufliciently to facilitate 

 natural cross-pollination. 



