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Flower Power

by Dr. Pathmanathan Umaharan & Gerard Best

Groundbreaking research from scientists at The University of the West Indies is behind the development of disease-resistant flower varieties, stirring farmers’ hopes of becoming global players.

Shaped like a heart on a stick, the anthurium is one of the most popular flowers on Valentine’s Day or at weddings, second only, perhaps, to the rose. And second only to orchids as the most popular tropical ornamentals grown for export. Regionally, anthuriums are grown largely in Trinidad and Jamaica. To some extent, Dominica, Barbados, St Vincent, Dominican Republic and Suriname have small industries; while St Kitts/Nevis, Antigua and Guyana are showing interest in growing the flower. The smaller farms with more intensive production systems, a characteristic of farming in small-island Caribbean states, are more suited for growing ornamentals than field crops, such as sugar cane or banana.


In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Caribbean had a flourishing ornamental industry, producing over 10 million cut-flowers per year, and was poised to become the major exporter into North America and a significant global player. Trinidad’s industry peaked during the mid-1990s, producing around 4.5 million cut-flowers to overtake Jamaica as the leading regional exporter. At that time, several factors seemed to provide a great competitive advantage to the region: an expanding intra-regional market, growing linkages with the regional tourism industry, and proximity to an attractive North American market serviced by direct daily flights.


However, the promise that the ornamental horticultural sector, led by anthurium, would become an important export earner for the Caribbean was short-lived. By the late 1990s, the industry had slipped into decline. The major contributing factor was the fact that the elite varieties of anthurium grown in the Caribbean were developed largely from planting material imported from the Netherlands, which was highly susceptible to several diseases and pests, mainly bacterial blight, bacterial leaf spot diseases, and the burrowing nematode Radopholus similes. The unavailability of good plant stock tailored to Caribbean growing conditions also ran Caribbean growers into a host of other associated problems, chiefly the high cost of planting material and the consequent lack of replanting.

During the past decade, however, research by scientists at The University of the West Indies (UWI) has played an important role in addressing these issues. With funding from the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM) and the CARIFORUM Agribusiness Research and Training Fund (CARTF), the University has developed screening methods, investigated the genetic control of resistance and breeding strategies, and developed disease-resistant varieties of anthurium.

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Research groups at Mona and St. Augustine campuses have developed protocols for the rapid multiplication of anthurium varieties through tissue culture and have established a semi-commercial tissue culture laboratory at UWI, St. Augustine to support the industry. The laboratory allows the possibility of rapidly multiplying the varieties and supplying them to the growers at significantly lower cost. In addition, research at the Cave Hill and Mona campuses has led to the development of methods for managing the nematodes and bacterial blight disease, using chemical control strategies.


The St. Augustine campus has also embarked on cutting edge research in bioengineering novel anthurium colours and patterns. These novelties can considerably improve the price fetched at international markets and can hence augment the profitability of the industry, providing further competitive advantage to the region. Genetic and molecular biological investigations have led to the development of a bioengineering method that provides great opportunities for manipulating anthurium spathe colour, to produce novel blues, purples and yellows.


This success could not have been achieved without the innovation and collaboration of the largest supplier of the ornamental plant in Trinidad and Tobago, Kairi Blooms Ltd. Chris Avey, Kairi’s managing director, says that focus has now shifted to creating indigenous strains of anthuriums through cross-pollination and mass-producing them through tissue culture technology. The University’s partnership with the private sector is creating potential for the region’s anthurium industry to re-emerge as a potential global player. It is a significant precedent—the first time that collaboration between the University and the private sector has created sustainable livelihoods by leveraging our indigenous germplasm and locally developed technologies.


Still, the harsh reality is that overall Caribbean production has dropped to around 2 to 3 million cut-flowers while the Netherlands, the major producer of anthuriums, does 78 million cut-flowers per annum, Mauritius 10 million, Taiwan 10 million, Hawaii 7.5 million, Philippines 4 million, and Thailand 3 million. Therefore, the goal for the next five years is to increase production in the Caribbean tenfold to 20 million. Can The UWI leverage the region’s strengths to build a Caribbean anthurium industry capable of meeting the increasing worldwide demand for tropical ornamentals?


In a word, yes. In September 2006, The UWI in collaboration with a number of sponsors, hosted the first Caribbean anthurium industry development workshop at the St. Augustine campus. The objective of the workshop was to develop a strategy for the re-emergence of the Caribbean anthurium industry as a major global force, based on locally developed tropically adapted varieties. The workshop, which developed strategies for the micropropagation and distribution of the new varieties, identified a major role for The UWI in providing further research and development support towards improving Caribbean competitiveness. Having successfully provided the impetus necessary to resuscitate the anthurium industry with the first wave of technologies developed, The University of the West Indies is confident in facing the present challenge to develop a second wave of technologies needed for the region to become a global player in the industry.

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