TY - JOUR AU - Pereira , Guillermo AU - Albornoz, Verónica AU - Romero , Christian AU - Lara , Sebastián AU - Sánchez-Olate, Manuel AU - Ríos , Darcy AU - Cristian, PY - 2017/06/30 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Asymbiotic germination in three Chloraea species (Orchidaceae) from Chile JF - Gayana Botanica JA - Gayana Bot. VL - 74 IS - 1 SE - ORIGINAL ARTICLES DO - 10.4067/S0717-66432017005000107 UR - https://gayanabotanica.cl/index.php/gb/article/view/243 SP - 131-139 AB - <p>Orchids require symbiotic fungi and/or specific conditions to germinate. Asymbiotic techniques have been shown successful for orchid germination. In Chile, <em>Chloraea</em> include many endemic, and potentially ornamental, terrestrial orchid species. In this study, individuals of <em>Chloraea crispa</em>, <em>C. gavilu</em> and <em>C. virescens</em> were manually autopollinated. The resulting capsules were sterilized and seeds were aseptically obtained. We evaluated asymbiotic germination in: Agar Water (AW), Knudson C (KC), Banana Culture Media (CMB), Tomato Culture Media (CMT), Malmgren Modified (MM), Murashige and Skoog (MS), and MS modified (MS1/2). Seeds were incubated in the dark at 24±1 ºC for 2 weeks. Then they were put in 16/8 h light/dark cycles for 14 weeks. We registered germination and embryo development in the different culture media. After 8 weeks, all tested <em>Chloraea</em> species germinated in most culture media. After 16 weeks, embryos in MM showed an evident shoot. In AW only the pre-germination stage was achieved. In <em>C. gavilu</em> germination was over 90% in MM, CMT, and CMB. In KC, a lower germination was obtained in all tested species compared to the other culture media, except for AW. Asymbiotic germination of endemic Chilean orchids could be a viable strategy for their conservation and propagation as ornamental species.</p> ER -