No correlation between the growth of in vitro cultured Yucca valida clones and the growth of their mother plants in the field

Yucca valida is a close relative to Yucca schidigera and a potential alternative source of the steroidal saponins extracted from the tissues of the latter. The exploitation from the wild is not only inefficient but endangers the natural populations and an alternative to these would be their domestication and establishment of commercial plantations. Both species have a long life span cycle and low growth rates affected by environmental conditions that make it difficult to select fast growing, high yield elite individuals for cloning purposes. Here, we report the in vitro establishment and propagation of mature Y. valida plants derived from seed that showed very different growth rates in an experimental field and their propagative and growth characteristics in vitro. No correlation was found between the growth of field cultivated plants and the relative increase of fresh (FW) or dry weight (DW) of in vitro cultured plants.