Flowering of Cymbidium ensifolium var. misericors in vitro.

ON: How long have you working with the research on manipulating cytokinin components to promote flowering Cymbidium ensifolium var. misericors in vitro, object of your lecture in Dijon?
CC: I have been working with Chinese Cymbidium and in vitro flowering for more than ten years since I was a Ph.D student and postdo.

ON: Could you explain a little about the process of manipulation  of those components?
CC: Not all the cytokinins examined have a positive influence on in vitro flowering. Among the eight cytokinins tested, only TDZ, 2iP and BA induced flowering of rhizomes.

ON: Cymbidium takes, at least five years from sowing to flower however you said that you got mass precocious flowering induction and development from the cultured rhizomes, so with this process, how long the plant gets to flower?
CC: Precocious flowers could be developed in mass from callus-derived rhizomes within 100 days after culturing on the medium.

ON: In general, Cymbidium has long lasting flowers, is it the same for those plants?
CC: The flowers open in vitro could be last around 14 days.

ON:Are the flowers of the same size as those cultivate under the traditional way?
CC: Flowers in vitro have smaller size compared with the pot plants. But in vitro flower had the normal organs such as petals, sepals and column.

ON: This process can be use for any genus or species of orchids?
CC: My researches are focus on the Cymbidium. The phenomenon of in vitro flowering can be found in other orchid but the process should be different depend on the species

ON: Concerning Taiwan, how many genera and species are there? The most part is terrestrial or epiphyte plants?
CC: About 101 genera with 322 species, 3 subspecies and 5 varieties in Taiwan. (Su, H. J. 2000. Flora of Taiwan, second edition, volume five). There are more terrestrial orchids in Taiwan.

ON: Thank you very much.

 

Photos by Cheng Chang