In vitro Germination and Establishment of Encyclia Vitellina

María Elena Quintana-Sierra, Gloria Solares-Díaz, and Reynoldez Vicente Barragán-Hidalgo

Facultad de Estudios Superiores Cuautitlán, UNAM, Mexico

Abstract: Encyclia vitellina is a Mexican endemic orchid. It is also known as Prosthechea vitellina or Epidendrum vitellinum. Like many other orchid species, E. vitellina is a threatened epiphytic orchid. The research objective was to evaluate the effects of three different media components on the in vitro germination time of E. vitellina. Seeds were germinated on Murashige and Skoog media (30%) with kinetin (1 mg l^-1) and indoleacetic acid (0.5 mg l^-1) (T1), MS (30%) (T2), and a medium with sucrose (T3). Analysis of variance was used for data analysis, and the Tukey test was performed to compare means. The shorter time to germination was found in the T1 medium, where it occurred on day 28, while in T2 and T3, it took place on day 41 and 62, respectively (statistical significance 5%). The frequency of germinated seedlings was high in the three treatments; however, several replicants of T3 had 0% germinated seeds. According to research reported previously, the time to germination was 110 days; in this research, the time to reach the germination state in all media was reduced even by two times or less. The fact that MS media at 30% and a medium without salts plus sucrose allowed the germination of E. vitellina, proved that the seeds need only a source of energy to germinate. Thus, the inexpensive medium under study is enough for the initial in vitro propagation phase of E. vitellina. This finding will contribute to the development of a propagation and conservation program of the endemic E. vitellina.