ABSTRACT
Rhubarb, Rheum rhaponticum L., sometimes called “pie plant” or “wine plant”, is a herbaceous perennial with a large, somewhat woody storage root system and fibrous adventitious roots, indigenous in the Far East. It is a member of the family Polygonaceae, genus Rheum, of which there are reported to be between 25 and 50 other species. By the 19th century R. palmatum L. had almost gone out of cultivation in Britain, but both species and hybrids of Rheum are still used in medicine in some countries. L. K. Hiller et al. demonstrated that flowering in Rheum spp. is affected mainly by low vernalization temperatures but, as in certain biennial Brassica crops, there is a juvenile stage during which the plant will not respond to chilling. Since these experiments were done on only one cv, Victoria, it is impossible to present any generalization on the flowering response of rhubarb to low temperatures.
