FW: Nation's First Flower Genebank Celebrates 2nd Birthday

**"Lon J. Rombough" l*@hevanet.com**

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From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 14:01:25 -0400
To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: Nation's First Flower Genebank Celebrates 2nd Birthday

STORY LEAD:
Nation's First Flower Genebank Celebrates 2nd Birthday

___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, comis@ars.usda.gov
July 23, 2003
___________________________________________

One of the few specialized genebanks for flowers in the world is
celebrating its 2nd birthday this month. In just two short years, the new
Ornamental Plant Germplasm Center is taking its place among the 25
functional genebanks of the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS).

David Tay is director of the new ornamental plants center, and Susan
Stieve is the curator. The center's role is to preserve the entire gene
pool of desired species and their wild relatives. Until now, the NPGS had
only about 3,000 flowering plant types in its collection--despite the fact
that, globally, floriculture is about a $50 billion-a-year business.

The newest germplasm center is the result of a cooperative effort between
the Agricultural Research Service, the Ohio State government and the
American floriculture industry. It is housed at The Ohio State University
in Columbus.

The center already has more than 1,500 accessions of ornamental plants
from all over the world safely preserved in the collection's seed cooler.
The center is networking with scientists locally and in other countries to
explore, collect and conserve more unique germplasm.

Last year the center researchers successfully regrew 40 accessions from
the originally collected seed stocks. The center is in the process of
building a tissue culture laboratory for clonally propagated plants. This
month, Tay and Stieve and their small crew began the center's first
shipment of seed, which is another important step in its development.
Requested germplasm will be distributed to researchers and breeders around
the world.

This year the center hosted the 2003 National Floriculture Forum of the
American Society for Horticultural Science. In 2005, it will host an
International Society for Horticultural Science symposium on flower
germplasm conservation and use.

The preservation of flower germplasm has become even more important today
as concentrated breeding narrows the gene pool of many popular flowers by
focusing on aesthetics.

The Ornamental Plant Germplasm Center's web site is:
http://opgc.osu.edu

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
___________________________________________

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