Senescence of Flowers and Ornamentals — Basic Principles and Considerations

Senescence is one of the least well-defined steps in biological development. The gross change of a series of changes leading finally to death of an organism has been referred to as senescence, Sacher [1] defined senescence as the final phase in the ontogeny of the organ in which a series of normally irreversible events is initiated that leads to cellular breakdown and death of the organ. Senescence of higher plants is classified into three major types [2, 4]: (a) population senescence (e.g. annual plants), (b) organism or individual plant senescence, and (c) determinate organ senescence (e.g. leaves, fruits, flowers, petals etc.).