All biologists agree to admit that the states of juvenile and adult, are followed by senescence and death.
We must consider that the ontogeny of plants is linked with their ability to renew the activity of the meristem to the formation of one or more additional members, called "replacement organs”. No wonder the term "dead-leaves", because the organs of photosynthesis, the leaves are renewable annually. So plants have an open growth, the phenomenon known for fixed organisms.
Orchids have very high capacity for vegetative propagation, which allows to renew the activity of meristems. Budding and growth of many species resumes each year forming in a natural way - the new growth: releases, stolons, bulbs, keiki, etc.. or artificially - cuttings.
Stages in the life cycle of Orchids:
The maintenance of hybrids in the collection occurs through somatic progeny (mitosis) by the multiplication of specimens genetically identical to the parent plant (clones).
by Marpha TELEPOVA-TEXIER
Département des Jardins Botaniques et Zoologiques du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, USM 0602, case postale 39, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris; [email protected]
We must consider that the ontogeny of plants is linked with their ability to renew the activity of the meristem to the formation of one or more additional members, called "replacement organs”. No wonder the term "dead-leaves", because the organs of photosynthesis, the leaves are renewable annually. So plants have an open growth, the phenomenon known for fixed organisms.
Orchids have very high capacity for vegetative propagation, which allows to renew the activity of meristems. Budding and growth of many species resumes each year forming in a natural way - the new growth: releases, stolons, bulbs, keiki, etc.. or artificially - cuttings.
Stages in the life cycle of Orchids:
- Germination (seed - protocorm)
- Growth (seedling - shoot - plant)
- Flowering (or meiosis gamete production, fertilization or gamete encounters, training of the egg or zygote)
- Fruiting
- Seed dispersal.
The maintenance of hybrids in the collection occurs through somatic progeny (mitosis) by the multiplication of specimens genetically identical to the parent plant (clones).
by Marpha TELEPOVA-TEXIER
Département des Jardins Botaniques et Zoologiques du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, USM 0602, case postale 39, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris; [email protected]