This rare plant shop is working to clone the famous & endangered ‘ghost orchid’
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DETROIT (WXYZ) — Two days before Halloween, Jocelyn Ho gave us a tour of her store and lab, Rare Plant Fairy, in Detroit.
“This one we won an award for, we named it the Philodendron Belle Isle,” said Ho, referring to one of their plants.
Her and her team care for thousands of different rare and exotic plants, which is interesting enough in itself. However, we’re spending the day with her because of specific work her team is doing working to clone a plant.
What plant? The famous, and nearly extinct, ghost orchid.
“We’ve been working on these ghost orchids for about 2 years,” said lab director Deb Sweeney.
“It’s a plant that is very well known in pop culture,” added Ho.
There are books and movies all about the ghost orchid, named for its white, delicate flower.
They are native to the Everglades, people travel from across the world hoping to find just one.
“Even though there’s only 1,000 in the wild, there’s a couple hundred here already,” said Ho.
She’s referring to the baby ghost orchid clones they have growing.
To clone, or propagate the ghost orchids, Sweeney puts pieces of the plant into a pink jelly-goo full of nutrients called synthetic media.
After a few years, they grow into the baby roots the team has now.
Ho said that their baby roots now need to be “hardened out,” planted in soil, and in a few years, under very specific conditions. Ho said that the cloned ghost orchids will bloom right here in Detroit.
“Us humans, we’ve done so much harm in the world,” said Ho. “This is my little way of trying to help that.”
For all of the rare plant lovers out there, Ho also said that their potted ghost orchids will most likely be available for sale in about a year.
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