EN
A repeatable in vitro culture method was established and it could induce a series of abnormal embryos by which their scale leaves were substituted by petals. These petal-bearing embryos were derived from long-term root calli of an orchid cultivar, Oncidium ‘Gower Ramsey’. The calli were induced and subcultured on a modified 1/2MS medium supplemented with five combinations of TDZ and dicamba. When 1-year-old callus, which induced and subcultured at 3 mg/l TDZ and 5 mg/l dicamba (line 13 callus), was transferred onto 1/2MS medium supplemented with 0.1 ml/l NAA and 3 mg/l TDZ, it gave the highest number of petal-bearing embryos. However, line 13 root explants gave one of the lowest percentage of callus formation (12.5%) and the number of somatic embryos per callus was also one of the lowest (along with lines 10, 11 and 12). The efficiency of embryogenesis decreased with age of callus and the significant decrease was started from the third year of culturing. Flowering characteristics of plantlets from normal embryos and petal-bearing embryos were both evaluated after 3 years of culture in the greenhouse. Parameters including length of the longest inflorescence, numbers of flowers per plant, length of flowers and width of flowers were all not significantly different between abnormal embryo-derived plants and normal embryo-derived plants.