The effects of the endogenous “senescence factor” (SF) and synthetic (±)‐abscisic acid (ABA) on basipetal transport of indoleacetic acid (IAA) inColeus blumeiBenth. were studied. When used to pretreat explant petioles, both SF and ABA accelerated abscission and decreased basipetal movement of IAA through petiolar sections but had no effect on acropetal movement, which was negligible in all experiments. SF decreased the intensity but not the velocity of the basipetal movement of IAA. Pretreatment with either SF or ABA decreased the free IAA and increased the IAA‐aspartate extractable from the sections. The results support the hypothesis that SF and ABA hasten abscission by lowering the amounts of IAA transport in the tissue. Known properties of SF are similar to those of ABA. Efforts are under way to elucidate the chemical identity of SF.