Predicting Flowering and Subsequent Leaf Expansion

V.PredictingFloralInitiationandSubsequentDevelopmentoftheFloralBudto Flowering........................................................129

In many plants, the main stem vegetative apex is transformed into a floral bud, and leaf production ceases. In such plants, the unexpanded leaves present at floral-bud initiation develop into progressively smaller leaves. In indeterminate plants, floral buds and fruit at axillary nodes either compete with vegetative apices for nutrients, or they produce hormones that suppress pical growth, or both, and leaf production and expansion is quickly slowed. In determinate plants with apical floral buds, leaf expansion in existingleaves is similarly curtailed.