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Ornamental Crops pp 273–299Cite as

Caladium

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Part of the book series: Handbook of Plant Breeding ((HBPB,volume 11))

Abstract

Caladiums are commonly grown in containers and in the landscape for their colorful and variably shaped leaves. They are indigenous to the tropic of South America and were introduced to Europe in the mid-eighteenth century. For the last seven decades, Florida has been the leading producer of caladium tubers, providing more than 95% of the tubers used in the world. Breeding over the last 160 years has resulted in numerous caladium cultivars. Hybridization has been the primary approach of breeding; selection of new cultivars has been focused on bright leaf colors, novel coloration patterns, multiple leaf development, and high tuber yield potential. Recent breeding objectives include enhanced resistance to Pythium root rot, Fusarium tuber rot, bacterial blight, and root-knot nematodes and tolerance to sunburns and chilling injury. Sexual hybridization will continue to play a major role in achieving these new objectives. Newly gained knowledge on the modes of inheritance for important foliar and horticultural traits and molecular markers are expected to increase the efficiency of caladium breeding. Somaclonal variation, ploidy manipulation, and interspecific hybridization will have potential to create novel colors and coloration patterns and improve disease resistance. More research on cellular and molecular technologies, such as protoplast culture, somatic hybridization, genetic transformation, genome and transcriptome analysis, and targeted gene editing, will be essential for continued improvement of caladiums in ornamental and horticultural traits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Horticulture, Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, University of Florida, IFAS, Wimauma, FL, USA

    Zhanao Deng

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  1. Zhanao Deng
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Correspondence to Zhanao Deng .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Sciences Unit, Applied Genetics and Breeding, Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Melle, Belgium

    Johan Van Huylenbroeck

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Deng, Z. (2018). Caladium. In: Van Huylenbroeck, J. (eds) Ornamental Crops. Handbook of Plant Breeding, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90698-0_12

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