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🇦🇺 Australia /Environment & Climate

Cloning technique offers hope for rare Queen of Sheba orchid facing extinction

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • Scientists have used a cloning technique called somatic embryogenesis to propagate the critically endangered Queen of Sheba orchid.
  • This breakthrough has generated over a thousand plants from a single seed, offering hope for the species' survival.
  • The cloned orchids flower faster and produce larger tubers, increasing their chances of survival in the wild.

Conservation scientists have achieved a significant breakthrough using a cloning technique, potentially saving the critically endangered Queen of Sheba orchid from extinction. Fewer than 30 of these iconic Western Australian orchids remain in the wild, found along the coast between Perth and Bunbury.

The technique is called somatic embryogenesis and it's a cloning technique so we can go from a single seed which is really, really small and generate as many plants as we want.

— Digby GrownsSenior plant breeder Digby Growns explains the cloning technique used.

A team from the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority (BGPA) at Kings Park has successfully employed somatic embryogenesis, a laboratory-based cloning method. Senior plant breeder Digby Growns explained that this technique allows them to generate numerous plants from a single, tiny seed. "We've now got over a thousand plants from that single seed and that's really making our ability to do research on this plant and hopefully put it back in the wild a reality," Growns stated.

We've now got over a thousand plants from that single seed and that's really making our ability to do research on this plant and hopefully put it back in the wild a reality.

— Digby GrownsGrowns describes the impact of the cloning success on conservation efforts.

Previously, research efforts were severely hampered by the orchid's scarcity and low survival rate, with perhaps only one in 50,000 germinated seeds growing into a mature plant. The somatic embryogenesis method, first applied to the Queen of Sheba orchid five years ago after success in ornamental plant breeding, has overcome this challenge. "So far we've been really kicking goals and we think this will be the solution to saving this plant from becoming extinct," Mr Growns said.

So far we've been really kicking goals and we think this will be the solution to saving this plant from becoming extinct.

— Digby GrownsGrowns expresses confidence in the cloning technique's ability to prevent extinction.

Orchid research scientist Belinda Davis highlighted additional benefits: the cloned orchids flower in just over three years, half the time of conventionally propagated plants. Furthermore, the cloned plants produce tubers ten times larger, making them more robust and better equipped to survive reintroduction into the wild. While further research on pollinators and specific fungi is needed before translocation, the cloning success offers a strong glimmer of hope for the Queen of Sheba orchid's future.

It's like seeing the birth of my first child. It was fantastic.

— Digby GrownsGrowns shares his emotional reaction to the first cloned orchid flowering.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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