Morphological characterization of Coelogyne spp for germplasm conservation of orchids

ABSTRACT Orchid is one of the ornamental plant that has a high aesthetic value. Efforts to increase the quality of orchids can be done by genetic improvement through crossing. The first step to success in orchid crossing requires information on morphological characters of the prospective parents. This study aims to determine the similarity of six species of natural Coelogyne spp based on qualitative morphological characters. Morphological characterization of 6 orchids was carried out based on 30 characters including stem, leaf, flower, pseudobulb, and rooting type. Cluster analysis was carried out with the NTSYSpc program version 2.02i with the UPGMA SimQual function method. The results showed that there were morphological diversities among the six Coelogyne spp on the character of the stem, pseudobulb, leaves, flowers and type of roots. Based on the dendrogram on 73% similarity, three major groups were obtained. The first group consisted of Coelogyne pandurata and Coelogyne rumphii, the second group was C. massangeana, C. mayeriana and C asperata, the third group was C. celebensis. Based on the morphological similarity of 87% there are two pairs of parents that have most successful chance to be crossed, C. pandurata with C. rumphii and C. mayeriana with C. asperata.