The fact that SA treatments induced an earlier expression
of flowers by 6 d is of particular interest, although this response
cannot be explained with these data. Further work is
needed in this area in order to propose a framework for the
mechanisms involved in this process. However, it may be
possible that salicylic acid stimulated flowering by inducing
a greater uptake of nutrients, since it has been demonstrated
that root systems grow larger as a result of SA (Gutiérrez
et al. 1998; Echevarría-Machado et al., 2007). It is also
possible that SA could have affected the specific expression
of the CONSTANTS (Co) protein, which is said to be crucial
for flowering induction.