HORTICULTURE

Floral stars

Two Indian horticulturists, father and son, have been awarded U.S. patents for hybrid ornamental plant varieties they have bred imaginatively and through painstaking efforts.

PARVATHI MENON
in Bangalore

TWO Indian horticulturists, working on their own and branching out of a strong family tradition with imagination and painstaking effort, have broken into the sophisticated United States market for ornamental indoor foliage plants. G. Parthasarathy and son P. Mukundan were awarded U.S. patents in October 1998 for two hybrid varieties of Aglaonema developed by them. They are the first Indian horticulturists to be awarded U.S. patents for ornamentals.

Their patented cultivars, Jewel of India and Emerald Star, which are among the 26 patented varieties of Aglaonema in the U.S., have the brand name of Stars of India. The patents for Jewel of India and Emerald Star (U.S. patent numbers PP10,658 and PP10,659 respectively) have been awarded for the plants' robust and vigorous growth rate, full and dense appearance, unique and distinct foliage pattern, rapid root initiation and development and resistance to diseases common to Aglaonema. The plant breeders applied for patents in August 1997. Another Aglaonema hybrid, Silver Ribbons, is undergoing pre-patent trials.

"We are proud to have been able to give something new to the horticultural world," said Parthasarathy as he strolled through his potted Aglaonema collection in the greenhouse behind his home in Bangalore. It is here that father and son developed their cultivars through an elaborate and time-consuming process of cross pollination from a pool of parent stock of Aglaonema.

"What motivated us was the desire to produce world-class hybrids from India. Hybridisation has been our family tradition," says Mukundan, who runs the Chennai branch of KSG's Farm & Nursery (the Bangalore unit is in Chamarajapet) started by Parthasarathy's father K.S. Gopalaswamiengar. (KSG, as he was called, introduced outstanding hybrids in Crotons, Hibiscus, and Bougainvillaeas. An authority in the field of horticulture, KSG authored Complete Gardening in India, which is now in its fourth edition.)

T.L. PRABHAKAR
Horticulturist G. Parthasarathy with the Aglaonema cultivars, Jewel of India and Emerald Star, that received U.S. patents for ornamental indoor foliage plants.

Aglaonema is a popular ornamental foliage plant. As it is relatively pest-free and can tolerate low light levels and fluctuations in potting medium moisture, it has become one of the most sought after ornamentals in Western countries where it is used extensively for interiorscapes. Its scientific name originates from the Greek aglos (bright) and nema (thread). Commonly called "Chinese evergreen", the plant spread from its original home in China to South-East Asia and later to the Americas and Europe.

Aglaonemas were not part of KSG's original repertoire. Parthasarathy and Mukundan branched into Aglaonema breeding in the late 1970s. Mukundan, who has a degree in Agricultural Sciences, is a former Ranji Trophy cricketer. An all-rounder, he played for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, captained the latter team, and retired from cricket in 1980 to concentrate on horticulture. On a visit to the U.S. in 1976 he met Bob McColly, a plant breeder working on Phillodendrons, who suggested that he take up the breeding of Aglaonemas which were in demand in the U.S. market.

In 1978, Mukundan and his father started the breeding programme. "By 1986, we had a huge set of hybrids which we were ready to market, but we picked the wrong companies to put them through the necessary trials and market them for us." There was a recession in the foliage market in the U.S. in 1988-89 and one of the companies that was given exclusive marketing rights pulled out. "Our mistake was that we chose multinational companies. We now work with family concerns where there is a personal commitment to new introductions," Mukundan explained. Their trial growers - Florida-based Butler's Nurseries and Tropical Ornamentals - became their licencees in the U.S. once the patents were received.

"During trial the Aglaonemas were put through two winters," said Parthasarathy. Aglaonemas are highly susceptible to 'winter injury' when the leaves of the plant turn brown. Both Jewel of India and Emerald Star were able to withstand winter conditions.

The grant of a plant patent precludes others from asexually reproducing, selling or using the patented plant. A mutant of the patented plant will not be considered of the same genotype and will have to be patented separately. In the U.S. a plant patent holds good for 20 years. The licencees of KSG Farm & Nursery have been allowed to propagate, grow and sell the patented varieties on payment of a royalty.

D. KRISHNAN
P. Mukundan, hybridising Adeniums at the Chennai nursery. The aim here is to improve the flower form and the colour range.

THE development of a hybrid involves a long process of trial and error, in which "breeder's intuition" plays not a small role. Although plant breeding is governed by well-established scientific techniques and parameters, horticulturists confess to an element of serendipity, which gives the process its special flavour and excitement. Parthasarathy and Mukundan started the Aglaonema breeding programme with a parent stock of around 10 species of this variety. "Basically you start the process of cross-pollination looking for the dominant features in each species that you would like present in your final hybrid," explains Mukundan. Thus, species are crossed for appearance, vigour, leaf form, branching ability and disease resistance: there is of course no guarantee that the offspring from a healthy parent stock will acquire all its features. Plant sterility is a major pitfall; an otherwise perfect-looking hybrid may actually be sterile, in which case the process must start all over again. In the case of the Jewel of India, Parthasarathy and Mukundan crossed an Aglaonema species called A. crispum Singapore, which is a large-leafed plant with low branching ability, with smaller hybrids. "The result was a bolt from the blue," Mukundan recalls. The new hybrid had small, narrow leaves with excellent suckering abilities. With the Jewel of India the breeders also reached a dead end as the cultivar is sterile and can only be reproduced vegetatively. "For all the time and patience needed, there is a tremendous sense of excitement that motivates us," Mukundan said. Jewel of India produces 18 suckers a year, which is a record (other Aglaonema varieties produce four to six suckers a year).

The first phase of the breeding programme, that is, hybridisation and seed production, was carried out in the breeders' greenhouse and on their 15-acre farm near Bangalore. The second phase, which involves plant germination and an initial culling or selection of hybrids, was done on their farm in Chennai. In the third phase, the selected hybrids were put through a final selection and evaluation in Bangalore. "We have not released our varieties in India as we have no protection for them," Parthasarathy said. "We need a home base but we also need protection for our varieties. Even if a patent law comes into force in India, the policing of the patent is not going to be easy." They plan to apply for patents in Europe, Australia and South Africa. The horitculturists hope that the Aglaonema hybrids currently being developed will replace Dieffenbachia, which bears close resemblance to the hybrid and whose popularity is on the wane owing to its poisonous properties. The leaves of Dieffenbachia, also known as "dumb cane", if eaten can result in temporary loss of speech.

These committed plant breeders also have an ongoing programme in developing hybrid varieties of Anthurium. Five such cultivars are undergoing pre-patent trials in the U.S. By successive crossing they have evolved Anthurium cultivars that can produce more than 10 blooms of medium-sized flowers in one plant. These plants look like tastefully arranged bouquets with a spray of blooms above a generous cluster of green leaves. Unlike the usual large-leafed Anthuriums, the leaves of the hybrids are smaller but more profuse, with clear leaf markings. Parthasarathy and Mukundan have also achieved a considerable measure of success in their work with Caladium hybrids, bringing out a range of new hybrids with remarkable colours and leaf patterns. The Hibiscus has been part of the family tradition. By successive breeding they have produced highly floriferous hybrids in a range of rich monocolours and multicolours. They are also cultivating the attractive Adenium in their Chennai farm, and exporting its seeds. In view of the large demand for hybrids, KSG's Farm & Nursery have set up a tissue culture laboratory to mass propagate their hybrids.