Plants of Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy’ (left) and P. Evarise Blue Angel (right).
Flowers of Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy’ (left) and P. Evarise Blue Angel (right).
Lips of Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy’ (left) and P. Evarise Blue Angel (right).
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For many people, growing flowers, particularly orchids, is both a hobby and a fashion trend. There are numerous cultivars of the Phalaenopsis orchid on the market. In addition to a wide array of colors, there are also various shapes and flower sizes. However, except for a few classic cultivars such as P. Sogo Yukidian V3, P. Big Chili, P. Queen Beer Red Sky, and P. Little Gem Stripes YH-9769, which have existed in the commercial market for many years, most cultivars do not stay in circulation for a long time. There are approximately 400 Phalaenopsis growers in Taiwan, and 300 people are engaged in breeding (Lai 2016; Zeng 2016). Although there are various types and colors of cultivars sold in both domestic and foreign markets, Phalaenopsis growers still continue to release new cultivars every year. In the past 10 years, cultivar rights were granted for more than 100 cultivars annually, although there was a reduction in applications during 2020 to 2022, likely because of the outbreak of the pandemic. These releases aim to provide consumers with a greater variety and fresher options to attract attention and enhance purchasing interest, thus improving market competitiveness.
P. spp. were used as parent plants to cross with other orchid genera, resulting in successful breeding of many hybrids and the selection of superior plants for certain purposes (Wu et al. 2016). However, high failure rates of intergeneric hybridization occurred. Hybridization reported in this work can be used as intermediate parents for future breeding between alliance genera, with the goal of improving the success rate of hybridization and developing unique horticultural traits, such as pleasant color, blooming in the summer, good proportions of the pedicel and plant, and others. Most importantly, most intergeneric hybrids bloomed and faded at the same time, but the phenomenon did not occur with this hybridization. We report that the intergeneric hybrid Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy’ was successfully bred through intergeneric hybridization and selected for proliferation.
All of the breeding, including crossing, selection, and performance studies, were performed under natural greenhouse conditions at the Floricultural Experiment Branch, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute. Flowering plants of P. pulcherrima fma. coerulea and Vandachostylis Lilac Blossom were grown in a pad-and-fan greenhouse. P. pulcherrima fma. coerulea was used as the seed parent that was crossed with the clone of Van. Lilac Blossom in Jul 2009. In Nov 2009, mature capsules were harvested and surface-sterilized with 70% ethanol, followed by immersing them in 1% sodium hypochlorite solution for 20 min; then, they were rinsed three times with sterile distilled water. In a laminar hood, capsules were cut open and seeds were scooped out with forceps onto the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium that had half-strength macroelements and full-strength microelements (Murashige and Skoog 1962) supplemented with the following (mg·L−1): myo-inositol (100); niacin (0.5); pyridoxine HCl (0.5); thiamin HCl (0.1); glycine (2.0); mashed potato (30,000); sucrose (20,000); Difco Bacto agar (7000); and activated charcoal (1000). The pH of the medium was adjusted to 5.7 before autoclaving at 121 °C and 103 kPa (1.05 kg·cm−2) pressure for 20 min. Seeds in flasks were incubated at 25 ± 1 °C under a 14-h photoperiod at an irradiance of 40 μmol·m−2·s−1 photosynthetic photon flux (daylight cool white fluorescent light, TOA lighting, FL40/36D-EX/T8). After 12 to 15 months of incubation, 76 seedlings were removed from flasks and grown in sphagnum moss under natural greenhouse conditions from Dec 2010 to Mar 2011 (20 to 30 °C, 12 to 13.5 h daylength). Fertigation was performed once every 1 to 2 weeks during the cultivation period. Peters 20N–8.6P–16.6K (20N–20P2O5–20K2O) water-soluble fertilizer (Scotts Company, Marysville, OH, USA) at 1.0 g·L−1 was added to tap water as the fertilizer solution. Seedling plants flowered naturally in Jul 2013. This hybrid was registered as Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy with the International Orchid Registrar, Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), England, on 2 Jul 2014. The cultivar A9 was selected among the seedling plants. Flower stalk nodes were used for vegetative proliferation in Nov 2016. These cloned Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ first bloomed in Jun 2020.
The clones were grown in 9.09-cm plastic pots with sphagnum moss. Fifteen plants were used for comparisons of these two cultivars. When Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ was compared with P. Evarise Blue Angel, a clone visually similar to the former, 16 traits were distinguished as different from the latter (Table 1). The following color descriptions are based on the color chart of the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society 2015).
Plant height of Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ and P. Evarise Blue Angel are 28.8 cm and 12.7 cm, respectively (Table 1, Fig. 1). The flower shape of Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ is convex, and that of P. Evarise Blue Angel is flat. The Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ leaf abaxial side is pale green, whereas that of P. Evarise Blue Angel is green.
Citation: HortScience 60, 3; 10.21273/HORTSCI18139-24
The front surface color of the dorsal and lateral sepals for Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ and P. Evarise Blue Angel are brilliant purple (N81C) and strong purple (N82B), respectively. The front surface color of the petal for Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ is purple, whereas that for P. Evarise Blue Angel is strong purple (N82B).
The shapes of the lip apical lobe for Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ and P. Evarise Blue Angel are obovate and circular, respectively. The front surface color of the lip pseudopeloria is deep purple (N81A) for Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’, and it is dark purple (N83A) for P. Evarise Blue Angel.
The front surface colors of the lip apical lobe and lateral lobe for Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ are deep purple (N81A) and strong reddish purple (NN78B), respectively and those for P. Evarise Blue Angel are dark purple (83A) and brilliant yellow (15C), respectively. Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ has a higher average flower count (24.7) than that of P. Evarise Blue Angel (8.6). The flower diameter of Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ is 2.7 cm, and the flower size of P. Evarise Blue Angel is 2.4 cm (Fig. 2).
Citation: HortScience 60, 3; 10.21273/HORTSCI18139-24
The dorsal sepal length and width of Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ are 14.5 mm and 8.1 mm, respectively, and those of P. Evarise Blue Angel are 12.1 mm and 7.7 mm, respectively. The lip length and width of Yap. Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘A9’ are 10.2 mm and 8.2 mm, respectively, and those of P. Evarise Blue Angel are 7.6 mm and 11.1 mm, respectively (Fig. 3).
Citation: HortScience 60, 3; 10.21273/HORTSCI18139-24
Questions concerning Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy and this research should be addressed to Dr. Rung-Yi Wu (e-mail: iris12@tari.gov.tw) at the Floricultural Experiment Branch, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Taiwan.
Plants of Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy’ (left) and P. Evarise Blue Angel (right).
Flowers of Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy’ (left) and P. Evarise Blue Angel (right).
Lips of Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy’ (left) and P. Evarise Blue Angel (right).
Contributor Notes
Plants of Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy’ (left) and P. Evarise Blue Angel (right).
Flowers of Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy’ (left) and P. Evarise Blue Angel (right).
Lips of Yapara Tariflor Pink Fairy ‘Tainung No. 2-Pink Fairy’ (left) and P. Evarise Blue Angel (right).
