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The future of the critically endangered Queen of Sheba orchid had been uncertain, with fewer than 30 left in the wild in southern WA. But now there's hope a new plant cloning trial at Kings Park could bring them back from the brink of extinction.

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00:02It's one of the rarest plants on the planet.
00:05And there's more plants on this particular plate than exist in the wild.
00:10But conservation scientists have made a breakthrough in the lab.
00:14The technique is called somatic embryogenesis, and it's a cloning technique.
00:19So we can go from a single seed, which is really, really small,
00:23and generate as many plants as we want.
00:26Now the first cloned orchid has flowered.
00:29Amazing. It's like seeing the birth of my first child. It's fantastic.
00:34It's not just the ability to propagate countless plants that has scientists excited.
00:40This orchid flowered in just three years,
00:43compared to the seven years it takes for plants grown using typical propagation techniques.
00:48It's another reason botanists are hopeful this technology will accelerate conservation efforts for the Queen of Sheba.
00:54If it does get more success, people might be able to see it in their own gardens across the area.
01:00But before any of these plants can be relocated to the wild or into gardens,
01:05there's more work to be done in the lab.
01:07The focus, now shifting to a fungus, vital to support the orchid's long-term survival.
01:13So we're really keen to get that sort of plant and fungal package together before we release them to the
01:18wild.
01:18The scientists plan to replicate the process for other threatened orchids.
01:23The scientists plan to prepare the прил tenth to fill together instead ofnahysis.
01:25When you're leaning on the frontier to track down the center of the source of the approach,
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