Orchid Seed Science and Sustainable Use (OSSSU)

To create and manage a global orchid conservation network to conserve, as seed, species from diverse habitats of varying levels of threat. To utilise biotechnological approaches to re-introduce threatened plants; enhance institutional and country capacity for orchid conservation, and serve as a global access point for integrated orchid conservation programmes.

OSSSU partners at the September 2010 Workshop at Jardín Botánico Lankester in Costa Rica.

Orchid species, estimated at ~25,000 species, represents one of the largest families in the plant kingdom. Their populations extend over all landmasses except Antarctica. Orchids occupy a range of habitats, and have evolved complex relationships with pollinators and symbiotic fungi. These specific life styles, or the habitats they occupy, have lead many to be highly threatened due to climate change, habitat degradation, loss of pollinators and over-collection for their ornamental value or for use in traditional medicine. Concern for the sustainable conservation of this unique germplasm has resulted in the creation of orchid seed banks in countries centring on biodiversity hotspots in Latin America and Asia. Initially funded by a Darwin Initiative programme (Defra; £220 k, 2007-2010 and gift-in-kind contributions of £429K; http://darwin.defra.gov.uk/documents/16012/21706/16-012%20FR%20-%20edited.pdf). The ‘Orchid Seed Science and Sustainable Use’ (OSSSU) project, managed by Kew staff, started with the primary aim of promoting the development of orchid seed conservation science across sixteen countries in Latin America and Asia. This not only established banking facilities for native species, but promoted and publicised the science underlying the principles of seed storage and orchid conservation in these countries, and the training of young scientists to ensure a legacy for the future. The project is expanding to embrace Research Institutes and Botanic Gardens in over thirty countries and forty institutes engaged in broader aspects of orchid conservation. A principle target is to conserve two thousand species by 2016, of which four hundred could be from China alone.

Orchids produce prodigious numbers of seeds ranging from thousands to millions per fruit, providing ideal targets for the long-term conservation of diverse germplasm and the capacity for large-scale re-introduction following either symbiotic (mycorrhizal fungi) or asymbiotic (complex in vitro media) germination. OSSSU enabled the controlled pollinations of >500 species, the banking at -20°C of >300 species, and the germination on a common (Knudson C) medium of >200 species. This is the first time that such a diverse range of species have been compared under common conditions. Results have shown rapid loss of viability in some Coelogyne species, and how pre-conditioning seeds (Cattleya) with sucrose can improve rapid viability assessment with tetrazolium. Better understanding of lipid biophysics is likely to inform storage strategies (under the Research theme ‘Frozen Planet’), such as the wider application of cryopreservation. It is an intention of the network to exchange pollen and seed between partners to improve the genetic stock of living collections.

Key to the success of the project has been in the level of communication the project has achieved through the promotion of orchid conservation in the participating countries. Such publicity has ensured the leverage of in-country funding, elevated the profile of orchid conservation, and encouraged local collaboration. To date this has been via the cascade training of five technicians, 104 undergraduates, ten master-level staff (including teachers), four PhD students and student exchanges between laboratories. We have published 17 papers and books, nine newsletter articles and more than thirty newspaper and web items. A particular success has been in the translation of “Growing Orchids from Seed” (Seaton and Ramsay, 2009) into Spanish, and its future publication in Chinese. Ready access and exchange of information is being facilitated through a website (www.osssu.org) and a regular newsletter (Orchid Science Letters) launched in 2011. Further outreach of this project is being achieved through charitable bodies. In the UK, this is through knowledge transfer to national collection holders (Plant Heritage), and incorporating them into OSSSU through the establishment of a 'Citizen Science' project. Internationally, this is through Orchid Conservation International, who are promoting our activities world-wide.

The network continues to expand to include further countries in Latin America and Asia, but also Europe, North America and Africa. Our aim is to construct a Global Orchid Facility on the web with a strong educational focus; a “one stop shop” where members of the network can access information on various topics topics including seed viability, viability testing, storage regimes, germination media and seed capsule maturation times.