In Vitro Technique Saves the Nearly-extinct Palaeobotanical Tree

News on the success of  producing plantlets through in vitro culture of the endangered gymnosperm Glyptostrobas pensilis was received by the Vietnamese conservationist with much enthusiasm. This palaeobotanical specimen called Thuy tung in Vietnam is considered to be a living fossil of the gymnopermae species. It  is distributed throughout Vietnam and recent count estimates the tree to be less than 150, most of them seriously degenerated in the past 35 years with no new seedling growth. The risk of extinction is very high, urging the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to issue a warning that it is an endangered species.

Attempts to reproduce the tree by Vietnamese scientists have failed until a research group led by Dr. Nguyen Van Ket, a lecturer of the Agriculture-Forestry Faculty at Da Lat University successfully propagated the tree in vitro. Thuy tung trees have developed good roots in the test tubes and will be brought out to the greenhouse and to the natural environment very soon.

For details contact  Hien Le of Vietnam BIC at hientttm@yahoo.com