One cloned orchid seed produced 1,000 plants and its first flower
How cloning one seed of the Queen of Sheba orchid changed its fate A flower at the edge The cloning breakthrough Solving a long-standing conservation
How cloning one seed of the Queen of Sheba orchid changed its fate A flower at the edge The cloning breakthrough Solving a long-standing conservation puzzle Only a tiny fraction of seeds grow into flowering plants and maybe one in 20,000, one in 50,000 seeds actually grow to be a mature plant. The first flower gives new hope Larger plants, faster growth The next Challenge Scientists are also looking into the natural pollinators of the orchid to make sure the restored populations can reproduce successfully in the wild. Science and innovation can do wonders that are even beyond the cource of nature. The future of an entire species sometimes depends on something so small it’s almost invisible. Wondering what and how? Well, conservation scientists in a Kings Park (Western Australia) laboratory took one single microscopic seed from one of the world's rarest orchids and attempted the impossible. According to the latest report by ABC News, five years later, that little seed has grown into over 1,000 healthy plants. Now, the first cloned orchid has bloomed for the first time. The breakthrough offers new hope for the critically endangered Queen of Sheba orchid, a spectacular wildflower teetering on the brink of extinction for decades.One of Western Australia’s most iconic native plants is the Queen of Sheba orchid, but it is also one of the rarest.
Fewer than 30 plants remain in the wild, growing along a narrow stretch of coast between Perth and Bunbury in the state’s southwest. The situation is so desperate that all known wild plants are protected by fencing and are under continuous CCTV surveillance to prevent damage and theft. The very small surviving population of the orchid has presented scientists with huge challenges to study the orchid without further endangering the remaining plants.Now a team at the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority (BGPA) at Kings Park has made a major breakthrough using somatic embryogenesis, a laboratory propagation technique. Scientists can clone plants with it, starting with one seed and making as many genetically identical offspring as they want. Senior plant breeder Digby Growns said the process transformed what was previously considered almost impossible." From that one seed we now have over a thousand plants and that's really making our ability to do research on this plant and hopefully put it back in the wild a reality," he said. The technique was already being used in the BGPA’s ornamental plant breeding program before being adapted for the Queen of Sheba orchid by researchers in 2021.Traditional propagation has offered little hope for the species.
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