In vitro propagation through axillary shoot culture of Ranunculus asiaticus L.

Ranunculus asiaticus is an important ornamental species mainly cultivated in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean sea. So far, the multiplication of this plant has been mainly carried out by seed and tuberous root division; however, these systems present many drawbacks. Tissue culture is an attractive alternative for accelerated propagation of selected and indexed genotypes. In this chapter, we present a flow chart for the commercial production of Ranunculus clones by using in vitro axillary budding. Although the price of micropropagated plants is higher compared to traditional material (seedlings and tuberous roots from seed populations), we need to consider that micropropagation helps to supply growers with more performant and healthy genotypes, and a better production schedule can be envisaged for cultivation and packaging.