Preserve the gene pool of wild orchids before it's too late

Demand for trading, playing wild orchids makes this precious flower hunted by humans in the wild. Up to now, the Vietnamese wild orchids are calling for help before the danger of disappearing in the forests.

On the edge of exhaustion

Dong Nhan village (Hoai Duc district, Ha Tay) is famous all over the place because the exploitation and cultivation of wild orchids have become a profession. Almost ten households in the village follow this profession. This place is a big focal point for supplying orchids not only in the North. Thanks to orchids, many homes have become better off. Forest orchids are often ordered to hunt hunters in the mountains, and then collected and transported to the river. Lan about all kinds, often dumped by weight, weight. New rare and precious species are counted according to the tops. There are gardens with capital invested in construction and purchasing orchids up to several hundred million. The most senior household has also been in this business for more than 15 years.

Ms. Tran, the owner of a large orchid garden, came in first in the village, saying that this profession has prospered over the past ten years. People began to have conditions of interest in bonsai, rockery, especially orchids. The villagers began to travel throughout the forested areas, placing rows on it.

Lan brought them back, they were tied to wood or boards and hung up, bathed to take care of their roots, flowered and sold. Or people hang up the orchids, who ask to buy and sell.

Villagers also spread to Buoi market or Ha Dong market to sell every time they come. Selling spread in this way quickly recovers capital but less interest. The most profitable is to export large shipments to gardens all over the country or to spread abroad. Although the market now has many industrial orchids, forest orchids are still popular because of the variety of flowers and plants.

Orchids grow slowly so after sorting and caring, people have to sell immediately to turn around the capital, only keep a part in the garden to nurture. Therefore, the job of this occupier only stops at the level of caring for the good plants to sell, not to make the orchid reproduce more.

In the high season, each month a garden receives a few orchid shipments. Each time from a few dozen to several quintals. If you multiply with the number of gardeners across the country, you will see how big a resource a forest has been bleeding every year.

According to scientists, a population of natural forest spread after exploitation is still renewable but will take several years and stay in a favorable condition. Sadly, with the narrowing of primeval forests, do we still find orchids in the wild? Some rare orchids have no longer appeared in Vietnam. People are shifting targets to forests in Laos or Cambodia.

How to preserve?

Until now, in the country, there is no place to do risky work to propagate orchids, grow big for flowers and sell. Orchid plants are very slow, requiring special care conditions at a young age. In the process of care there are many risks. Therefore, most gardeners are doing business in the style of 'top cut' above.

' It is difficult, there are many risks, it takes a lot of time but it is not impossible ' - Master Pham Tuan Anh, an officer of the Center for Experimental Biology, Institute of Technology Application, affirmed. The work of breeding Vietnamese wild orchids is being carried out quite smoothly here. The current problem is not a technological barrier but a time and cost for growing orchids larger than wild orchids.

For example, in order to create an adult belt of orchids that can flower, it takes more than a year for the pollen seeds to germinate in vitro and grow into a sapling that is sufficient for the environment. Then it took more than three years in the greenhouse to grow that orchid and flowering normally like nature. All are 5 years, plus investment and care costs.

Currently, this center implements a breeding project, trial production of some wild orchid species. Some places contacted to sign contracts to buy young trees. The gene source is taken from pollen grains in the fruit of parent orchids. Then sow in vitro. The comedy orchid was born in the first test tube for two years and is growing very well in the greenhouse. Also according to Mr. Tuan Anh, the advantage of propagating this is that at the same time it will create a lot of seedlings only from a single grain of pollen. That would be very convenient if large-scale farming is done.

At present, forest orchid trade is still public or stealthy. But when Vietnam fully integrates, the law is taken seriously, only certified farm products can be 'righteous language' and go abroad.

Preserving and developing the genetic resources of orchids in Vietnam not only has scientific significance, but it is also a basis for us to recreate a resource that is being exploited blameless. So start before it's too late.