Regeneration in Zamioculcas: an Experimental Study1

Abstract

Detached leaflets of Zamioculcas form a tuberous swelling, from which roots and one or more buds emerge, at the base of the leaflet stalk (petiolule). Similar regeneration occurs at the proximal end of any cut across the midrib and, in the absence of the midrib, at the base of the main lateral veins; it is always associated with vascular tissue. Whole leaves and bare petioles also formed one or more such tubers, but no regeneration occurred from roots or portions of tuber. Regeneration can be induced at the distal cut surface of portions of leaflet, where it does not normally occurs, by treatment with various growth-regulating substances. Questions of correlation, polarity, and causality are discussed as far as is possible without the anatomical observations, which form the subject of a separate paper.