on 6/20/04 7:45 AM, Nancy sent forth this article from a magazine: > To meet demand from orchid enthusiasts, a research centre is resorting to bio- > engineering to produce orchids with unusual colors such as deep red and dark > blue, reports the New Straits Times (Malaysia). > > The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) said > there was strong demand for solid-colored orchids. > > Orchids grown commercially are mostly light-colored, said Dr Umi Kalsom Abu > Bakar, deputy director of Mardi's bio-technology centre in Serdang. > > The centre is waiting for the latest batch of the bio-engineered plants to > bloom. > > "Once these have bloomed, we will be able to analyze them to know how colors > are formed in orchids and where we need to genetically enhance them to get the > desired colors," said Umi. > > One day, bio-engineering could even produce an orchid with the colors of the > Malaysian flag, Umi said. Research is expected to take one to two years.
Hello everyone, I have come to realize from work experience that there are many plants, that if they have certain flower colors these plants often grow very vigorously (and in my line of work they often need more growth regulators to keep balanced and short growth) and other colors grow much more slowly. It doesn't hold across the board for all plants, but often light-colored annuals are vigorous growers and reds are much slower growers. The researchers may find out that after they insert dark genes into their orchids, that they end up growing so slowly as to not be commercially viable. I'm a member of the IPA (International Phalaenopsis Alliance) and I have read in the IPA Journals and in other articles and websites that in trying to breed for certain colors the plants of certain colors grew so slowly that it would take too long for them to grow up and flower (to see what the results of the hybridization were and to use them in future breeding), so that it was too expensive to try and grow and sell them. Of course the disclaimer follows that not all plants with those colors are slow growers, and it may not've been the color genes 'slowing' the growth down. food for thought, charles in flower: phal philippinense, phal lueddemanniana and luedd. var delicata, phal amboinensis, peloric phal equestris, phal micholitzii, phal pulchra finally flowering (yay!), and phals cochlearis, fasciata, hieroglyphica, maculata, violacea and violacea alba in bud yes, the paph malipoense is still in bud, the spike reaching about 18" and growing! -- Charles Ufford Calen the Border Collie CGC - now in Heaven Oriskany, NY USA IPA, Central NY and Southern Tier Orchid Societies [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.paphiopedilum.net Http://www.geocities.com/charlesufford
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