Growing native orchids from seed is a challenging and long-term task with many research opportunities. Symbiotic germination, where orchid seeds are inoculated onto an actively growing culture of known orchid mycorrhizal fungi (OMF), is the primary way to ensure that laboratory propagated orchid seedlings establish a fungal relationship. Despite reports on increased and faster germination […]
To appreciate the scale of this endeavor, the leaf in this shot is about the size of your thumbnail! Cute as a button, you’ll need a hand lens to appreciate the flower of Lepanthes rupestris. This orchid native to Puerto Rico was recently collected and seed banked at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. […]
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Micropropagation is an effective conservation tool for producing tissue clones or for germinating spore or seed in vitro. Orchids are known to be quite difficult to propagate as they typically require fungal symbionts during their germination. In this video, Jason Ligon and Tito Tomei explain how to propagate orchids in the lab using sterile micropropagation […]
Dennis Whigham, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Long-term monitoring of Isotria medeoloides at two sites in Virginia have been combined with observations from an understory thinning experiment at one site and death of a large canopy tree at a second site. New plants emerged at both sites following increased light levels and flowering and fruit production increased. […]
Peter Zale, Longwood Gardens Despite significant advances in seed propagation and production of lady’s slipper orchids (Cypripedium spp.) in the last 25 years, the genus remains rare in ex situ collections, access to seedlings from local populations that may capture important genetic diversity is rare, they are expensive to purchase, and there are still inconsistencies and […]
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Cryopreservation, a method of storing tissues in liquid nitrogen, is becoming increasingly important to rare plant conservation. This is because many plant species, including large groups such as oaks, orchids, and bryophytes, are unable to be stored long term using more traditional seed banking methods. Using cryopreservation techniques, researchers are able to preserve greater crop […]
David Remucal, University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum While many seedbanks avoid working with orchids, more groups are taking them on, or collecting them for groups that are. Collecting rules and protocols are not different for orchids but there are enough complexities in their biology to intimidate collectors new to orchids. Orchid seeds are the smallest in […]
Joe Davitt, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research In this video, Joe outlines the process for making short informative videos using commonly available technological resources such as your smart phone. He describes the tools available to CPC Network members seeking to create content for CPC Rare Plant Academy or our upcoming online course series, […]
Meera Das*, Reema Diengdoh, Seram Devika, Suman Kumaria, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India, *Speaker North-east India, being one of the global hot-spots, is considered the richest reservoir of diverse plant genetic resources. However, the vast utilities of plant species in medicines, ornamentals, fragrances, urbanization and illegitimate harvest of plant genetic resources have immense impact on […]
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Seeds of terrestrial orchid species are small and essentially without food reserves, but data on the longevity in the wild of seed of most orchid species is lacking.
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Dennis Whigham and Julianne McGuinness, North American Orchid Conservation Center The North American Orchid Conservation Center (NAOCC) was developed by the Smithsonian and the U.S. Botanic Garden to conserve the diversity of native orchids in the U.S. and Canada. NAOCC ecologically-based conservation model has three guiding principles: Preservation through seed and fungal banks, Propagation, Education. NAOCC […]
David Remucal, University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum We have been struggling with a propagation database. This has been of particular interest as our orchid conservation program has grown, we have needed a way to track individual maternal sources or populations from seed to potted plant as they go through different treatments and use different media. […]