Although the Enlight Threatened Flora student group could not visit and work alongside the scientists based at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens last year due to the pandemic, it did not prevent us collaborating with them on saving a threatened local native orchid. We decided to focus our work on one particular species, the veined spider orchid.
All laboratory work was conducted at Kildare, using our specialised equipment to propagate the orchids. We were able to collaborate with the scientists via zoom meetings, emails and numerous phone calls. The College is fortunate to have equipment such as a laminar flow cabinet, a tissue culture room and a germination chamber to carry out the intensive and specialised work required in germinating and propagating most terrestrial orchids.
We were highly successful in extracting, isolating and culturing the specific mycorrhizal fungus that the seed of the plant requires to germinate. We were then successful in growing the plants first on agar plates and then in flasks - all under sterile conditions. In the photographs you can see a member of the Enlight Threatened Flora Group, Abigael, holding and viewing flasks containing seedlings of the threatened orchid, the veined spider orchid, in the College's plant tissue growth room.
Paul Beltrame
Learning Leader
