May 17, 2007
Science of floral scents and colors blooming in Israel
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In future, it will be possible to create "designer flowers" to meet specific requests -- to match the color of one's clothes, eyes or furniture, for example, or with a specific smell.The researchers are also working on developing plants with improved disease resistance and plants that make more roots, creating more flowers as a result. "There are various directions of research, but all of them are concerned with molecular breeding," he said.
Israel is one of the biggest flower-growing nations in the world, alongside The Netherlands, Colombia and Kenya. Hebrew University's agricultural, food and environmental quality sciences faculty has played a central role in the development of flower growing in Israel over the years. The faculty has been a partner in the development of some 40 percent of the flowers now found in the market.
Vainstein's team is now exploring new avenues of research.
"In Israel we have a lot of seawater; we want to see if we can use it to grow things, not necessarily flowers," Vainstein said. "It's just like with scent. We start researching something just because we are curious. If we later see applications for the knowledge, then that's great."
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