Asymbiotic Germination of Immature Seeds in an Ornamentally Important'Fox-tail ’Orchid,Aerides multifloraRoxb.

Abstract

Present paper deals with asymbiotic ger-mination potential of immature seeds in Aeridesmultiflora Roxb. for its rapid mass propagation in vitro. Seeds were inoculated on Potato Dex-trose Agar (PDA) medium with and without growth adjuncts (CH, Casein Hydrolysate; P, Pep-tone, YE, Yeast Extract; each 0.1%) and activated charcoal (AC; 0.2%). Seed germination initiated after 1.20±0.42 weeks (wks) on CH supplement-ed medium. The percent germination response showed significant differences in majority of combinations used; it was lowest (48.00±2.16) in basal medium and highest (99.50±0.85) in medi-um supplemented with CH and AC. Protocorm formation started after 4.15±0.48 wks of cultur-ing on CH and AC containing medium. First leaf and first root differentiated after 7.30±0.82 and 14.00±0.67 wks of culturing respectively on me-dium supplemented with P and AC. Seedlings with 3–4 leaves and 2–3 roots were obtained af-ter 18.30±0.67 wks. The medium supplemented with CH and AC proved to be the best for seed germination, protocorm formation and multipli-cation, and that containing P and AC for early leaf and root differentiation, and seedling devel-opment. The seedlings were subjected to hard-ening and 72.56±3.18% of them survived under greenhouse conditions.