Table 2.

List of morphological traits and brief descriptions.

Number	Morphological traits
1	Number of new shoots (number): total number of produced new shoots per rhizome
2	Leaf length (cm): length of the fully opened first leaf from the soil surface to leaf tip
3	Leaf width (cm): breadth of the leaf at the widest part of the leaf
4	Number of leaves (number): number of fully emerged leaves at the end of vegetative growth stage
5	Plant height (cm): the height of the peduncle at the top of the soil surface to the tip of the inflorescence
6	Number of days to visible bud appearance (days): number of days from the first day of planting to appearance of the first visible bud. Buds appear at the middle of two sheaths of leaves
4	Inflorescence length (cm): the length between the lowest green bracts to tip of the upper pink bracts during anthesis
8	Number of days to anthesis (days): the number of days from planting to fully opened flower bud
9	Number of days to senescence (days): the days from first day of anthesis until end of the shelf life of the flower
10	Number of true flowers (No.): the number of small axillary flower buds which develop inside bracts during anthesis
11	Number of pink bracts (No.): inflorescence of C. alismatifolia comprising several apical bracts. Most basal bracts are green, but the distal ones, more numerous than the green ones, are purplish pink bracts which determine the attractiveness of the flowering stems. The number of pink bracts was counted during anthesis
12	Rhizome size (cm): the girth of the M0V0 and M1V1 rhizomes was measured with vernier caliper and mean was expressed in centimeter
13	Number of new rhizomes (No.): after harvesting, the total number of new rhizomes (M1V1) was recorded
14	Number of storage roots (No.): the total number of storage roots of M0V0 and M1V1 rhizomes was recorded at harvesting time