Orchids developed with the tissue culture technology and (right) another variety at the Regional Plant Resource Centre in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 4: A group of scientists in the city can help you offer a twig of indigenous orchid to you beloved.

The scientists of Regional Plant Resource Centre, apart from hybrid orchids for gardens of people with green fingers and also for professional horticulturists for mass production and marketing, have also developed tissue culture-based technologies to create new varieties of orchids.With the help of the tissue culture technology, a portion of a plant tissue can give rise to an entire plant, and since the orchids do not grow from seeds, it is significant in their propagation.The orchid biology group of the centre has developed highly sought-after eight hybrid orchid varieties, and at present, they are developing eight more. These hybrid orchid flowers are imported from Thailand and Malaysia.

The scientists are busy in developing not only the exclusive hybrid ones, but also the orchid plants from the indigenous varieties as well.Senior scientist Nihar Ranjan Nayak said: “The group is working on three aspects. It is developing the hybrid varieties with highornamental values, so that people and entrepreneurs can commercially cultivate them. Besides, the locally available species with highornamental values can also be made market-ready through their popularity. Third, the rare indigenous orchid varieties can bepropagated more in areas such as Similipal and Mahendragiri, which are traditionally famous for availability of orchids in the state.”

Orchid and gardening enthusiast Bishnu Charan Parida said: “It is a good news that the centre has come up with such an idea to popularise orchids as a major floriculture alternative since the plant has great market demand. Already a major industrial house and several small entrepreneurs are reaping benefits by producing rose, gerbera and gladiolus flowers.”

Group leader and chief executive of the centre Ajay Kumar Mohapatra said: “We are also going to start a technology incubation centre on the premier institute’s campus. Here space will be provided to young entrepreneurs, so that they can use the technology to produce orchid flowers and sell their products through our counters.”

While the centre is regarded as one of the major research and development organisations across the nation for orchids, the state has so far 131 species of the plant. The Similipal Tiger Reserve in Mayurbhanj has the largest collection of orchids with 90 varieties. The Mahendragiri hills in Gajapati district also house many rare orchids.

On the other hand, India is rich in orchid flora with 1,331 species, 400 of which are endangered. “The centre is planning to make orchid farming a cottage industry across the state.

There is a great potential in producing orchid flowers as many agro-climatic zones here are suitable for floriculture within the natural surroundings,” said Nayak.