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An history of orchid hybridization, seed germination and tissue culture

1984; Oxford University Press; Volume: 89; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1095-8339.1984.tb02567.x

1095-8339

Joseph Arditti,

Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies

Orchids were probably hand-pollinated for the first time in 1797–1799 by the German botanist, J. K. Wachter. The earliest description of orchid seedlings (Orchis morio and Bletia verecunda), was by the British botanist, R. A. Salisbury, in a paper delivered in 1802 and published in 1804. Germination of an orchid (Prescottia plantaginea) in a horticultural establishment was initially reported from the Horticultural Society garden at Chiswick, U.K. in 1822 or 1832. However, the first detailed and substantiated report on the subject was published by D. Moore, Director of the Glasnevin Botanical Garden in Ireland in 1849. This lead to the first orchid hybrid which was produced by J. Dominy of Messrs Veitch & Sons of Exeter, U.K. in 1856. Fifty years later the French botanist Noel Bernard discovered the role of mycorrhiza in orchid seed germination. Methods for asymbiotic germination of orchid seeds were formulated by the American plant physiologist L. Knudson. The first attempt to propagate an orchid (Phalaenopsis) by tissue culture methods was made by G. Rotor at Cornell University. Shoot tip culture methods for orchids, developed by G. Morel in France in 1960, utilized techniques used for Tropaeolum and Lupinus by E. A. Ball in the U.S.A. as early as 1946.