Saving rare orchids through plant tissue culture

Recently, the Tissue Culture Class from Palm Beach State College went on an amazing field trip to the FAU Pine Jog Environmental Education Center Orchid lab.

A special thank you to our Biotech Program Alumni, Bethany Simpson and Bennett Niemi, who both work at the lab and were fantastic hosts.

PBSC alumni share their love of orchids with current students
Photo credit: Alexandra Gorgevska, Palm Beach State College

They shared their passion of working to repopulate native, rare, endangered Florida orchids.

They walked us through the process of taking orchid seeds and propagating them in the lab, transitioning them to the greenhouse, shade house, and planting in nature.

Orchids grown from seed in the lab. The growing room for orchids. Orchids in the greenhouse Orchids outside The next step in transitioning to growing outdoors.

We toured the facilities and part of the 60-acre nature preserve. They inspired more orchid conservationists!

It isn't always recognized, but plant tissue culture is an important component of horticulture and nursery operations. This method is used to propagate many endangered species along with several common plants.  Learn about companies that hire people as plant tissue culture technicians and read about plant tissue culture.