 |
| Primulina 'Loki' grown by Karyn Cichocki |
The case for
the conservation of Primulina by the distribution of seed.
Since I’ve recently become very
interested in Primulina and its development as a commercial crop, there is a
need to collect and study all of the Primulina species possible. There are 145 known species and more will be
found.
At present the only commercial
possibility is to promote Primulina as a small foliage houseplant. Flowering time is one to two years and flower
color is limited to blue, yellow, pink and white. For Primulina to become a common flowering
plant equivalent to African Violets will require years of dedicated
hybridization work. The fastest
technique would be to possess all known species and make all the F1 hybrid
combinations. Ten different species
yield 45 unique F1 hybrids, which may or may not have any value. This is being done at the Gesneriad
Conservation Center of China.
The mission of the center is a noble
goal of collection and protection of all species that can be found.
But how to best conserve them? Protecting the native land sites is doomed to
loss from development progress. The most
liberal idealistic plan is to commission dedicated PhD scientists to collect,
identify and maintain stock of all of these new plants.
The most conservative plan is to
distribute the seed throughout the World to all interested parties, hobbyists,
botanical gardens and commercial growers.
Species cannot be patented, so there can be no potential gain.
Hoarding
plant genetic material seems like the thing to do but distribution is the more
likely method of preservation. If a
species plant is lost, someone else could be keeping it alive. It may be counter-intuitive but the more rare
the plant, the more important it is that it is widely distributed for its
preservation.
If Primulina is to follow the path
of African Violets, then at some point in the future there will be profit to
earn and protect with plant patents.
If a commercial plant business takes
on this project, it would cost $100,000 per year to support a full time plant breeder. With Primulinas two year flowering time, a
minimum of 10 years would be needed to have any chance of selecting some good
flowering plants. This is a million
dollar bet, so royalties would be needed to recover the investment.
For sure, no one will bet a million
dollars at this point in the development of Primulina. All the work will have to come from dedicated
hobbyists on a random occurrence.
The
Gesneriad Society should use its influence to obtain all of the Primulina
species from the Gesneriad Conservation Center of China. It is the most sensible method of conserving
the plants and the only method of creating new hybrids and improving their
flowering potential.
