Micropropagation of Cymbidium iridioides

Abstract

Seeds of Cymbidium iridioides D. Don, a highly collected orchid species of Nepal, has been developed were cultured on Murashige and Skoog, 1962 (MS) static media solidified with 0.8% agar. Complete seedlings were obtained from asymbiotically germinated seeds on MS media supplemented with 6- benzyalaminopurine (BAP) 1 mg/l plus ?-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) 1 mg/l in eight weeks of primary culture. The shoot tip explants were obtained from in vitro grown seedling for the shoot multiplication. Maximum number of shoots were developed from shoot tip explants on MS media supplemented with BAP 0.5 mg/l (8.25 shoots per single shoot). This ability did not decline even after a year of subculture. For rooting of shoots the media was supplemented with various auxins. Media supplemented with 1mg/l indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) was the ideal condition for root formation. Thus obtained complete plantlets were able to grow in community pots after a short period of acclimatization. This result suggests that the methodology might be applied as an alternative to minimize the over exploitation of the natural population of this species.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njst.v12i0.6485

Nepal Journal of Science and Technology 12 (2011) 91-96