IN VITRO PROPAGATION OF NATIVE ORCHID DENDROBIUM SPECTABILE (BLUME) MIQ.

Abstract

The forests of Papua and New Guinea have a rich variety of flowering plants. One orchid species from Papua and New Guinea is the Dendrobium spectabile. The D. spectabile has unique characteristics in which the flowers are slightly different in a florescent light. The flowers of D. spectabile are dissimilar with most of the other Dendrobium sp. Unlike the common Dendrobium, the D. spectabile will not flower without much higher levels of light. They will even take full sunlight for longer periods of time. The D. spectabile will start flowering when it reaches 4-5 years old. Recently, many people exploit this species, causing it to become very rare. Therefore, it is important to study the propagation method in order to conserve this species. In this study, in vitro propagation using different culture media were explored. The aim of this study is to compare two different media, i.e. medium VW with modification and medium W3, which has been known to give highest respond for growth of D. spectabile. The experiment was carried out at Tissue Culture Laboratory, CV Ayu Orchid Bali, from April-August 2012. The experiment employs Completely Randomized Design (CRD) design with 20 replications for each media. The result of the experiment showed that the highest respond for growth of D. spectabile was VW medium. This was indicated by higher number of plantlets (average 306.75), number of leaves (average 3.45) and plant height (average 2.65 cm). However, the leaves of plantlets using medium W3 showed dark green and the explants were stronger than explants in medium VW.