Affect of Pod Age on Seed Germination of Habenaria rhodocheila Hance in Aseptic Conditions

Abstract

A series of experiment to find suitable pod age for seed germination of Habenaria rhodocheila Hance in aseptic conditions by sowing the  3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 weeks old seed pods after pollination onto the modified Vacin and Went (1949) (CMU1) medium showed that at one week after sowing, the embryo shape from the 3 weeks old seed pod  was not well formed, whereas those from the 4, 5, 6 and 7 weeks old seed pods showed oval embryos. Twenty weeks after seed sowing, the embryo sizes from the older seed  pods (7 and 6 weeks) were bigger than those  from younger seed  pods (5, 4 and 3 weeks). Germination was not found from seeds of the 3 and 4 weeks old seed pods, whereas the 7 weeks old seeds provided early germination and gave the highest germination percentage (2.46 %,12 weeks after sowing).  It also gave bigger protocorms than those from  the 5 and 6 weeks old pod.