An Edible Lily 'lanzhou Lily' (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) Tissue Culture, Regeneration, and Micropropagation

While many ornamental plants are known for their edible properties, only a few lily varieties are edible. Edible lilies play a major role in the lily industry in some Asian countries, attracting attention from consumers, scientists, and farmers around the world. Among the different edible lily species/varieties used for food, Lanzhou lily (L. davidii var. unicolor) is proved to be the best.  There is no known Lanzhou lily cultivation in North America, therefore no efficient propagation system is available. We established an efficient in vitro regeneration and micro-propagation system of Lanzhou lily. Among the different media and growth regulator combination tested, successful regeneration of adventitious shoots from bulb scale was achieved on MS [Murashige, T., Skoog, F., 1962] medium supplemented with thidiazuron (TDZ) 2mg/L, a mean number of 4 shoots can be induced from  0.5 cm² bulb scale cuttings, and the highest rate of regeneration is 98%. Shoots regenerated directly from the bulb scale without callus stage. Roots were induced from all the regenerated shoots on half-strength MS medium supplemented with 0.8mg/L charcoal in 20 days, the acclimatization rate for in vitro plantlets is 100% in greenhouse. This protocol will be useful for introducing novel vegetables to new potential growing areas and may be used in Lanzhou lily mutation breeding.