Guangxi International Orchid Symposium

Life is full of surprises, and an invitation to talk about OSSSU and the ex situ conservation of orchids in at the Guangxi International Orchid Conservation Symposium in May this year arrived completely out of the blue.  Not only was this an opportunity to learn about Chinese orchids from Chinese researchers, but also there was the promise of a field trip to see spectacular colonies of Paphiopedilum hirsutissimum (left) at the newly created Yachang Natural Reserve in Leye County.  How could I possibly resist?

The icing on the cake was the chance to meet once again some of the participants from the first OSSSU workshop held in Chengdu in October 2007, and the opportunity to make new friends.  In addition to our hosts from Chengu, Holger and Wenqing Perner representing the Administration of the Huanglong Nature Reserve, the delegates included Dr. Jin Xiao-hua of the Institute of Botany, Dr. Song Xi-qiang from Hainan University, Yu Zhang from Beijing Botanical Gardens, Dr. Tim Wing Yam from Singapore Botanical Gardens, plus Prof. Hu Hong from KIB (Kunming Institute of Botany), whom I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time. Clearly OSSSU partners are extremely active and making a positive contribution to orchid conservation.  Jin provided an insight into the orchid diversity in the Gaoligong Mountains; Song described in situ seed germination techniques for  Dendrobium;  Holger talked about orchid conservation in Northwest Sichuan; Hu Hong described recent research advances in Cypripedium and Paphiopedilum and Tim spoke about conservation of the native orchids of Singapore through propagation and reintroduction.  I did feel a little sorry for my translator of my own talk – it appears that I am incapable of sticking to the script!

Of course there were other speakers at the symposium!  The quality of the talks was excellent.  I came away knowing much more about Chinese orchids in general and about orchid pollination in particular.  The conference was meticulously organised (successfully ferrying around 200 participants on a six hour journey from Nanning into the Guangxi countryside and conducting the field trips with so many people was no mean feat in itself).  The micropropagation facilities at Yachang were impressive, and the aim is to turn the centre into an international research facility within the very near future.   Seeing Paphiopedilum hirsutissimum growing in its natural habitat was magical.

Post script

After the conference I travelled home via Beijing along with Yu Zhang and Yung-I Lee from the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Natural Science in Taiwan. Yu took us to visit her lab at Beijing Botanical Gardens, and to see Cypripedium macranthos in flower at her nursery in the mountains around Beijing.  Yu and Yung have independently isolated suitable symbiotic fungi for germination of Cypripedium species.

Phil Seaton

The Thailand International Orchid Innovation Show: Bangkok

On returning home from Guangxi I found that I had received an invitation via Kanchit Thammasiri to speak at the Thailand International Orchid Innovation Show (TIOIS) in Bangkok in July.  In contrast to the scientific conference in Guangxi, this was a business event associated with a large orchid show.  The orchid flower trade is a major source of income in Thailand, and the focus of my talk was to highlight the importance of conserving the germplasm of wild species in future orchid breeding programmes.

Not only did I enjoy meeting Kanchit once again, but I also met a number of his students  from Mahidol University.  Having spent most of my life teaching, I was more than a little envious of Kanchit's day to day contact with such enthusiastic students.  Witayaporn Pornchuti who is working with OSSSU species as part of her research for her PhD plied me with questions about her results when germinating species on different media (including Knudson's C of course).  Kanchit had made full use of the opportunity to promote OSSSU by displaying a poster in his booth explaining the project and featuring a number of photographs of Hugh Pritchard taken on a previous visit to Thailand.

I enjoyed the show.  Not only was it an opportunity to see large numbers of varieties of Dendrobium phalaenopsis hybrids and Vandas, the like of which are not seen in the UK but, in addition to Kanchit's booth, there were a number of booths from other universities with displays and demonstrations of bioreactors, virus testing and biological control of fungal diseases of orchids.

My all too brief visit to Thailand was rounded off with a field excursion to two orchid cut flower farms: hectare upon hectare of dendrobiums and Mokara. ... where I also discovered why commercial growers favour whisky bottles as tissue culture vessels – they are easy to pack and transport.

Phil Seaton