Micropropagation and Conservation of Export-Oriented Ornamental Crops in Thailand

Abstract

The ornamental crops in Thailand are grown for house gardens, landscape design, cut flowers, and potted ornamental plants. Orchids, with a production area of about 5,600 acres (21% of the total) rank the highest among the ornamental crops, especially cut-flower crops, that are important to Thai agriculture and economy. The biotechnology used for ornamental crops in Thailand is tissue culture and the new development in cultural practices. Molecular techniques are studied only in universities and institutions because the cultivars are changed in a short time and do not get very high income. Orchid is the major crop using tissue culture due to its popularity, indispensability, and sustainability. In addition, tissue culture protocols for rapid propagation were developed for other ornamental crops, such as monstera, philodendron, aglaonema, alocasia, tillandsia, Piperaceae, Araceae, etc., of which production depends on unstable demand. Tissue culture techniques have been interestingly researched and used for enormous species and hybrids. On the contrary, many wild ornamental plant species are in endangered for extinction because of deforestation and natural disasters. Therefore, the conservation of orchids and other ornamental plants is urgently needed by various means, such as living collection, seed and pollen storage, in-vitro conservation, and cryopreservation from government agencies, private sectors, and people. The markets for ornamental crops are continuously increasing and new outstanding cultivars are being produced or improved by conventional breeding using the plant genetic diversity.